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Temuka Leader, Issue 2246, 27 August 1891, Page 4

The Lancet records a remarkable case, which illustrates what human beings are driven to do when suffering the agonies of starvation. The body of an Arab was found in the hold of a ship, and was conveyed to the Seaman’s Hospital, Greenwich, where a post-mortem examination was made by order of the coroner. The body was much emaciated, and the following extraordinary list of materials was found in his intestines: —Twenty trouser buttons, three cogwheels (apparently out of a watch), bn# g.jn steel screw bent double, lin screw, six pieces of a lock, the biggest being IJin long and Mu broad, a circular piece of brass, several pieces of iron, wire, brass, lead, and two key tallies on a ring lin in length. The weight of the articles amounted almost exactly to Mb. The poor fellow had evidently secreted himself in the vessel, and had remained undiscovered by the crew during the whole of the voyage from some distant port, and had swallowed these articles to relieve the pangs of hunger,