Rensselaer Republican, Volume 13, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 August 1881 — HUMAN PINCUSHIONS. [ARTICLE]

HUMAN PINCUSHIONS.

How Needles and- Pins Work in and Out of the Body. London Lancet. Hildanus related an inoident of a woman who swallowed several pins and passed them six years afterward; but a more remarkable instance of prolonged detention was reoorded by Stephenson, of Deiroit—that of a lady aged 75, who last year passed, after some month’s symptoms of yessical irritation, a pin which she had swallowed while picking her teeth with it in the year 1835 —forty-two years previous. M. Bitty records some years ago the case of a woman who had a penchant for pins and needles so strong that she made them, in fact, a part or her daily diet,and after her death 1,400 or 1,500 were removed from various Darts of her body. 1

Another, case almost as striking has been recorded by Dr. Gillette, that of a girl in whom, from time to time, needles were found beneath the skin, which they perforated, and Were removed by the fingers or forceps. Concerning the way m which they got into her system no information could be extracted from her. .Bhe was carefully watched, and in the course of eighteap months no less than 320 needles were extracted, all being of the same size. The largest number which escaped in a single day-was sixty-nine. A curisus phenomenon preceded the escape of eacn needle. For some hours the pain was severe,and there was considerable fever. She then felt a sharp pain, like lightning, in the tissues, and on looking at the place at which this pain had been felt, the head of the needle was generally found projecting. The needle? invariably came out head formoet. No bleeding was occasioned, and not the least trace of inflamation followed. The doctor in attendance extracted 318.

That little weight is to be attached to the place at which the needles escape as proof of their mode of introduction is evident from a case recorded by Villars of a girl who swallowed a large number of pins and needles, and two years afterward, during a period of nine months, two hundred passed out of the hand,arm, axilla, side of thorax, abdomen and thigh, and on the left side. The pins, curiously, escaped more readily and With less pain than the needles. Many years ago a case was recorded by Dr. Otto, of Copenhagen, in which four hundred and ninety-five needles passed through the side of a hysterical girl, who had probably swallowed them during a hysterical paroxyywm; but all these emerged in the regions "below the level of the diaphragm, aud were collected in groups, which gave rise to inflammatory swellings of some size. One oflhese contained’ one Hundred needles. Quite recently Dr. Bigger described before the society of surgery of Dublina case in which more than three hundred needles were removed from the body of a woman who died in consequence of their presence. It is very remarkable in how few cases, the needles were the cause of death, and how slight an interference with functions their presence and movements cause.