STRANGE TASTE.

Dunstan Times, Issue 702, 1 October 1875, Page 4

STRANGE TASTE.

Tito incident of tlio man who swallowed a fork in Pavia in April last lias inspired Dr Mignon with the idea of collecting all records of similar cases. lie has been able to find details of 163, and it would bo difficult to imagine anything more astonishing than the catalogue of the objects swallowed by either veritable lunatics, or what may be termed sane idiots. Among the very indigestible and uncomfortable items catalogued wo find 15 gold medals, hair rings innumerable, 174 francs, a shoe-buckle, nine inches of a swordblade, very sharp scissors, 80 pins, a baby’s bottle, an entire set of dominoes, 100 louis d’or, a flute 4in. long, a glass phial, 35 knives, a clay pipe, from 1400 to 1500 pins, a bar of lead weighing US, a whetstone, and (in three instances) a table fork Eat the most extraordinary of all these cases occurred in the instance of a Convict who die! at Brest, 1773, and on whose body a necropsy was performed. The stomach was completely displaced and examined. It contained 52 different objects weighing altogether lib lOozs. Among them waS a pa rtf of n,hpop of a barrel, 19in long and lin wide. M. Mignon has classified these 163 cases into three categories. 1. Foreign bodies which passed through the whole extent of . the digestive canal with scarcely any injurious results. 2. Foreign bodies which passed through the whole extent of the digestive track, with more or less serious results, but ultimate recovery. 3. Foreign bodies which have parsed through the whole digestive track, causing serious disturbance and fatal results. 4. Cases in which the foreign body has not passed. 5. Cases in which operations have bien performed. It is a remarkable fact that the cases of death caused by the presence of foreign bodies, in the digestive tubes are loss numerous than might be expected. Out of the 163 cares, we only find ten deaths from this cause. To these must be added two deaths after operation, making' altogether twelve. There appears, therefore, to be no great cause for the surgeon to be over anxious in these cases, hut to remember that unless there should cither be some complications in the general health or some special indication, it will he as well for him not to interfere, and above all things not to perform Gastronomy, save as a last resource. Of this last operation M. Mignon relates five cases, among them being those which Mr Neal, in 1854. and Mr Bell, in 1859, thought themselves obliged to perform, the one in order to extract a bar of lead ten inches loner, and weighing lib, thei other to do the same with a bar of lend nearly twelve inches long and weighing more than 9oz. In both these cases the symptoms were very serious, comprising violent pains in the stomach, twitchings along the vertebral column, sickness, and general prostration. The foreign bodies., could not be felt through the abdominal walls, but the surgeons decided upon performing the operation, thinking that the sufferers had no chance of relief. The success of the operations was fortunately complete.