A Wonderful Story.

Te Aroha News, Volume I, Issue 31, 5 January 1884, Page 5

A Wonderful Story.

Mk Bkunel, tho celebrated engineer, had several narrow escapes of his life, but the most extraordinary accident which befel him was that which occured while one day playing with his children, and astonishing them by pretending to pass a half-sovereign through his month and out at his ear. Uniortunately, he swallowed the coin, and dropped it into his windpipe. The accident occurred on the 3rd April, 1843, and it was followed by frequent fits of coughing and great uneasiness on the right side of the chest. But so slight was the disturbance of breathing that it was for some time doubted whether the coin had really fallen into the windpipe. After the lapse of fifteen days Sir Benjamin Brodie met Mr Key in consultation, and they concurred in' the opinion that most pi'obably the half-sovereign was lodged at the bottom of the right bronchus. The day after, Mr Brunei placed himself in a prone position, face downward npon some chairs, and bending his head and neck downwards, he distinctly felt the coin drop towards the glottis. A violent cough ensued, and on resuming the erect posture he felt as if the object again moved downward into the chest. Here was an engineering difficulty the like of which Mr Brunei had never before encountered. The mischief was purely mechanical. A foreign body had got into his breathing apparatus, and must be removed, if at all, by mechanical means, Mr Brunei was, however, equal to the occasion. He had an apparatus constructed consisting of a platform which moved upon a hinge in the centre. Upon this he had himself strapped, and his body was then inverted, in order that the coin might drop downward by its own -weight, and so be expelled. At the first experiment the coin again slipped towards the glottis, but it caused such an alarming fit of convulsive coughing that danger was apprehended, and the experiment discontinued. Two days after, on the 25th, the operation of tracheotomy (making a hole in the windpipe) was performed by Sir Benjn. Brodie and Mr Key with the inteng tion of extracting the coin by the forceps if possible. Two attempts to do so were made without success. The introduction of the forceps into the windpipe was attonded with such an excessive degree of irritation that it was felt the experiment could not be continued without imminent danger to life. The incision in the windpipe was, however, kept open by means of a quill or tube until the 13th of May, by which timo Mr Brunei's strength had sufficiently recovered to enable jthe original experiment to be repeated. He was again strapped to his apparatus. His body was inverted, and his back gently struck, and lie distinctly felt the coin quit its place on the right side of the chest. The opening in the windpipe allowed him to breathe while the throat was stopped by the coin, and it thus had the effect of pre , venting the spasmodic action of the glottis. After u few coughs the coin dropped into his mouth. Mr Brunei used after-, wards to say that the moment he felt the gold pioce strike against his front teeth was the most exquisite of his whole life. The half-sovereign had been in his windpipe for not less thian six weeks,