A QUEER STORY.

Waikato Times, Volume X, Issue 770, 24 May 1877, Page 2

A QUEER STORY.

AN UNKNOWN ANIMAL IN THE HUMAN STOMACH. Harlem has a sensation in the person of a negro girl named Hatfcie Brown, who is supposed to be suffering from the presence of a living animal, of some kind as yeb unknown, in her intestines. Dr Deuiaresfc furnishes the following* particulars of the case, which he has gleaned from the girl herself, and from a. careful examination made recently. He was called in to attend ilattie, who is described as being abont twenty-live years old, educated, and having a slight figure and prepossessing features. She resides at No. 400, East One Hundred and Twentieth street, wifch her mother and auufc, and the family are all dressmakers. Between five and six years ago, • Hattie attended a picnic, and diu'iug the clay drank some water from a running stream, and now, she says, remembers noticing that she swallowed some animal of appreciable size, though it was forgotten almost immediately afterwards, and only recalled when it was supposed that some living creature had taken up its abode in her body. Not long after this occurrence her health began to ail, and a disease of a curious nature fastened itself upon her, which advanced with slow but certain steps for several years until she was finally incapacitated for work. She gradually wasted away, grew weak, and suffered apparently from a lack

6f vitality, and finally, remembering the incident related above, concluded —which is nothing new as a Superstition among negwes44hat she was suffering, from the presence of some tiring thing in her intestines. Her theory was confirined before long by the Unwelcome tenant giving unmistakable evidences of its presence by periodically emitting; distinct sounds, and moving itaeif from place to place. The girl having conceived the idea that the parasite had: its likes and dislike?, and was. aroused to greater action, causing her consequent pain, by her eating and drinking -certain things, and consulting her owa comfort as well as that of the parasite, regulated her diet accordingly. The object, whatever it may be, at length grew to such a siae, aS to be plainly discernab^e' in her emaciated state as it shifted its position from place to place in. the intestines, bat if touched or at. tempted to be grasped, as she had several times tried to ' grasp it, it . would fly to the other side of the body, its coarse being plainly discernible through tho , abdominal walls. The sufferer attempted several times to grasp it in such a way as to be able to strangle it, but was alwas unsuccessful. The voice -^ of the creature was variously described as resembling the barking of a pnppy and a low, gurgling sound, but, when heard by the' physician, the ' ker-chunk ' which accompanies the descent of a bull-frog into a puddle.. • ' The case has been treated several times as one of simple tenia or tapeworm, that being the natnral con. reached by physicians whom she has heretofore • consulted from her statement of the difficulty, but she now says she withheld the truth . from them, and refused to submit to an examination through fear that they would desire to perform an operation upon her. The remedies usually prescribed for tape-worm were given her, but were never accorded a fair trial, and her case went from bad to worse. Liquor in large quantities was tried in the effort to destroy the -supposed interloper, and in the hope of reviving her shattered system. It was observed that enormous quantities of liquor would have no effect upon the girl, who was entirely unused to them, but would apparently stupify the parasite for a time, laudanum and opium having the same effect. But when the effects had passed away, the parasite's movements were conducted with such increased vigour, and its restlessness caused the patient such intense pain, that their nse was discontinued. When she takes food the parasite comes up , close to the pit of her stomach, and abb claims that she can distinctly ' feel it swallow.' Dr Demarest says he saw with 1 his own eyes and heard with his own ears the movements and voice of the interloper. A careful examination failed to detect any signs of any other trouble or disease about the* girl, and if this trouble . were re moved, he thinks she would be an exceptionally healthy woman. Her appetite is not greater than that of an ordinarily healthy person, the only thing wrong about her being an extreme irregularity of the bowels. He is firmly convinced that the girl has a living animal of some sort in her intestines, and equally sure that it is not a tapeworm. A case so unusual, of course, only leaves room for .' expectant ' treatment, as it is technically called, at least, until something further is developed. He does not, however, entertain very sanguine hopes of beneficial results from medicine, but thinks that it will be necessary to open the abdomen and cut the intestines in order to remove the intruder. This operation, which is an exceedingly delicate one, has been frequently performed with satisfactory results in other difficulties, and, Dr Demarest thinks, can undoubtedly be used as a means of wettling the question of ' What is it) 1 and of saving the girl's life, if she can be induced to consent to it.