A REMARKABLE CASE.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXVI, Issue 10474, 9 October 1912, Page 8

A REMARKABLE CASE.

SUBSTITUTE FOE A MOUTH,

Sydney, October 2. A cable in one of the Australian 1 papers a- few days 'ago stated that a | man in France had had Jus stomach removed, as the result of an operat ion for some internal complaint, part of the intestines being made-, to idee its place. Apropos of this, one of the Sydney papers recalls, the case of an extraordinary inuivmual who lived at Bendigo, Victoria, a few vam ago. He had not -ost his stvmuch. but lie was hardly less r'inarhablo far nil that. When on a “bender,” he had groped jus way in the dark for something to quench ],is thirst. What ho found was nitric acid, end although ho discovered his mistake before no mid | swallowed tliu dory stuff, Ins month j was so severely burned tliafc from that night lie was unable to use it in the ordinary way. A surgeon fitted v. silver tube into his stomach, and through this he was obliged to absorb all the solids and liquids to sustain life. 'Whether or not he found it casie* to live on linn ids, he certainly showed a decidtid preference for that form, of nourishment. When anyone shouted him a pint of beer lie would undo one brace, expose the top of the tube just under his lower rib, nod a cheerv, “Hood luck, mate!” and pour it in. His capacity ; for pints •was not stated, but the beer used to have the same effect as intoxicants swallowed in the ordinary way—it went to his head and muddled Jiim. Although he could be charged with drunkenness, as lie often was, it could never be said that be had been drinking. However, no lawyer ever raised that point on his behalf, and ho did his occasional seven days as cheerfully as circumstances would permit. A few months after his case was made public he died in a country hospital.