Strange Tastes.

Cromwell Argus, Volume VI, Issue 304, 8 September 1875, Page 7

Strange Tastes.

The incident of the man who swallowed a fork in Paris in April last has inspired Dr Mignon with the idea of collecting all records of similar cases. He has been able to find details of 163, and it would be 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 we find 15 gold medals, hair rings innumerable, 175 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 lib, a whetstone, and (in three instances) a table fork. But the most extraordinary of all these cases occurred in the instance of a convict who died at Brest, 1773, and on whoso body a necropsy was performed. The stomach was completely displaced and examined. It contained 52 different objects, weighing altogether lib lOoz. Among them was a part of the hoop of a barrel,. 19in long andlin wide. M. Mignon has classified these 103 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 passed through the whole digestive track, causing serious disturbance and fatal results. 4. Gases in which the foreign body has not passed. 5. Cases in which operations have been performed. It is a, remarkable fact that the cases of death caused by the presence of foreign bodies in the digestive tubes are less numerous than might be expected. Out of the 163 cases, we only find 10 deaths from this cause. To these must be added two deaths after operation, making altogether 12. There appears, therefore, to be no great cause for the surgeon to be over anxious in these cases, but to remember that unless there should either be some complications in the general health or some special indication, it will be as well for him not to interfere, and above all things not to perform castronomy, 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 lOin long, and weighing lib, the other to do the same with a bar of load nearly 12in 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 nn chance of relief. Tho success of the operations was fortunately complete.

Old Mrs Smith, left her patent churn open last Saturday to dismiss a book agent from the door. The cat that was taken out, after an hour's churning, was not aa lively as when it jumped iu.