A CAUTION TO SMOKERS.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3772, 17 August 1883, Page 4

A CAUTION TO SMOKERS.

The Auckland Herald is responsible for the following .strange .story :— Recently the particulars of a remarkable accident came to our knowledge. The subject of tlio accident was Mi , George Stiliie, traveller for Messrs Bhickio and .Son, publishers, London, Glasgow, and Edinburgh. About, .sixteen or .seventeen months ago Mr Stiliie was in Australia. The weather was very hot, and he took a hummock and .suspended it the verandah of the house he was staying in as a bed at night. The mosquito*) were troublesome, and, as he had often done previously, he lighted his pipe after gutting into the ' hammock to keep his tormentors away untill he should fall asleep._ The pipe lie itsedwas a niersebaum one, with a bone stalk which screwed on. The full length of this part oE the stalk was 21; inches. The bowl of the pipe had been loose, though unknown to Mr Stillio at the time. During sleep the bowl of the pipe became detached from the stalk, and he bad unconsciously siiekcd the stalk down the windpipe, and it had found a lodgment on the top of tlio right lung. Of this lie was quite unconscious at the time, and the absence of the stem on the following day excited no suspicion in his mind. He began to suffer from mi irritating- cough, and on a doctor being consulted lie stated that ho was sufferingi'rom chronic bronchitis. In Melbourne subsequently he consulted other medical men, but all told him the same tale—chronic bronchitis. On his arrival in New Zealand, more than twelve months ago, he suffered n good deal when in Dunedin, and was informed by the doctor ho consulted there tho sumo * atory ; but lie promised to cure him of chronic; bronchitis if he would lie up for six weeks. Mr Stiliie did not sec his way to do that, and continued, until about ■six weeks ago, to sufl'er from his chronic complaint. All whom ho consulted agreed upon the ailment from which he sullered save one chemist in Melbourne, who asserted that his trouble was not bronchitis, whatever it was. About six weeks ago Mr Stiliie was in "Wellington, and was .seized with a severe fit of coughing, and keeping his head in a stooping position while so coughing, he ultimately coughed up the long concealed pipe stalk. An abscess formed where the stalk had so long rested, and ho was attended to at the Hospital hero soon after his arrival in Auckland. Ho is now staying at the Albert Hotel, and will be glad to show the cause of so much suffering to any medical man who may feel interest in the recital of the particulars of his case.