Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 November 1894 — What a Maniac Can Stomach. [ARTICLE]

What a Maniac Can Stomach.

One of the medical officers of the County Asylum, Lancaster, contributes to the London Lancet an account of an operation upon a lunatic from whose incoherent statements it was suspected that he had swallowed some nails. Forceps passed into the stomach having failed to extract any foreign bodies, though they could be felt from the outside, it was decided to attempt to relieve the man by operation. On incision, the stomach was found to be occupied by a mass of rusty nails, many of them nearly three inches in length, and some very sharp, bent, and twisted. Their removal, naturally, was very tedious, as many of them could only be extracted one at a time. A piece of matted hair, nearly tiro inches in length, was also found. In all, there was removed from the stomach 192 nails, (the majority being two and a half inches in length, and many even longer), half a screw nail, a piece of brass wire, a carpet tack, several small pieces of stick, a buttyn, and the mass of hair already mentioned. The whole weighed one pound nine and one-half ounces, Several pieces of wood were found in the patient’s intestines, but no nails. .. . \