A rapscallion ingested 35 knives.
This is what happened to his gut.
JC was a hearty mariner, presenting to...the consulting rooms of Dr Babington at Guy’s
Hospital in London.
But at this point he was far advanced in his malady and hence our story begins several
years prior.
Welcome to the Olde England Journal of Medicine.
In the year of 1799, J Cummings, ah no that is excess divulgation lest his identity be
revealed, I shall instead refer to this maritime man as John C, 23 years of age, being with
his ship on the coast of France, and having gone on shore with some of his shipmates,
he and his party directed their course towards a tent, which they saw in a field.
Being told that a play was acting there, they entered, and found in the tent a mountebank,
who was entertaining the audience by pretending to swallow clasp knives.
Having returned on board, Cummings, after drinking freely, boasted that he could swallow
knives as well as the Frenchman.
He was taken on his word and challenged to do it.
Thus pressed, and though (as he candidly acknowledged in his narrative) " not particularly anxious
to take the job in hand, he did not like to go against his word, and having a good supply
of grog inwardly," he took his own pocket-knife, and on trying to swallow it "it slipped down
his throat with great ease, and by the assistance of some drink, and the weight of the knife,"
it was conveyed into his stomach.
The spectators, however, were not satisfied with one experiment, and asked the operator
" whether he could swallow more ?" his answer was, "all the knives on board the ship ;"
upon which, three knives were immediately produced,"which were swallowed in the same
way as the former; and " by this bold attempt of a drunken man, the company was well entertained"
The next afternoon he had a motion, with which he passed one knife, which however was not
the one that he had swallowed the first.
The next day he passed two knives at once, one of which was the first.
The fourth never came away.
Six years later, in the month of March 1805, being then at Boston, in America, he was one
day tempted, while drinking with a party of sailors, to boast of his former exploits,
adding, that he was the same man still, and ready to repeat his performance; upon which,
a knife was produced, which he instantly swallowed.
In the course of that evening he swallowed five more.
The next morning crowds of visitors came to see him; and in the course of that day he
was induced to swallow eight knives more, making in all fourteen.
This time, however, he paid dearly for his frolic; for he was seized the next morning
with constant vomiting, and pain at his stomach, which made it necessary to carry him to Charleston
hospital, where, betwixt that period and the 28th of the following month, he was safely
delivered of his cargo.
Having later been pressed into His Majesty’s naval service, he got drunk, and, as usual,
renewed the topic of his former follies.
He was once more challenged to repeat the experiment, and again complied, "disdaining,"
as he said “to be worse than his word."
This took place on the 4th of December 1805, and in the course of that night he swallowed
five knives.
On the next morning the ship's company having expressed a great desire to see him repeat
the performance, he complied with his usual readiness, and " by the encouragement of the
people, and the assistance of good grog," he swallowed that day, nine clasp knives,
some of which were very large and he was afterwards assured, by the spectators, that he had swallowed
four more, which, however, he declares he knew nothing about, being, no doubt, at this
period of the business, too much intoxicated to have any recollection of what was passing.
This made a total of at least thirty-five knives, swallowed at different times.
On the following day, 6th of December, feeling much indisposed, he applied to the surgeon
of the ship, who paid great attention to his case, but no relief was obtained.
At last, about three months afterwards, he vomited one side of the handle of a knife,
which was recognized by one of the crew to whom it had belonged.
In the month of November, he passed several fragments of knives, and some more in February
1807.
In June of the same year, he was discharged from his ship as incurable; immediately after
which, he came to London, where he became a patient of Dr. Babington, in Guy's hospital.
He was discharged after a few days, his story appearing altogether incredible.
After an interval of nearly a year since his former application, he was readmitted.
He was considered as a hypochondriac, and was treated accordingly.
Subsequently, however, the consistency of his story, the intense pain he suffered at
the region of his stomach, and a hardness which Dr. Babington thought he could appreciate
in the region of the colon, induced his medical attendants to give some credit to his account.
Dr. Babington having one day examined him, conjointly with Sir Astley Cooper, concluded
from the deep black colour of his alvine evacuations, that there really was an accumulation of ferruginous
matter in his organs of digestion.
And this was fully confirmed soon afterwards, by Mr. Lucas, one of the surgeons of the hospital,
who, by introducing his finger into the rectum, distinctly felt in it a portion of a knife,
which appeared to lie across the intestine, but which he could not extract, on account
of the intense pain which the patient expressed on his attempting to grasp the erstwhile clasp.
With a view to dissolve these bodies, or at least in hopes of succeeding in blunting their
edges, nitric, and afterwards sulphuric acids, combined with opium, were prescribed.
In March of 1809, the wretched fellow expired in a state of extreme emaciation.
Upon opening the body after death, various interesting appearances presented themselves
Throughout the cavity of the abdomen, a blackish ferruginous tinge prevailed, which was also
observable in the hepatic system.
On examining the intestines, one of the blades, and one of the back springs, were actually
found in them, both so situated that their expulsion from the body was obviously impossible.
One had literally transfixed the colon opposite the left kidney, and projected into the cavity
of the abdomen; while another was found stretching across the rectum, with one of its extremities
actually filed in the muscular parietes of the pelvis.
A great many portions of blades, knife-springs, and handles, were found in the stomach, including
the remnants of a balisong knife apparently originating in the Philippines, by way of
a Spaniard, attesting to the fact JC quite literally felt a butterfly in his stomach.
These fragments numbered in excess of 40, some of which were remarkably corroded, and
prodigiously reduced in size, while others were comparatively in a state of tolerable
preservation.
Sir Astley Cooper deduced, that so long as the stomach was not injured in its action
and texture, the passage of the knives was, in most instances, attended with very little
inconvenience.
But from the frequent repetition of these experiments, together with the man's habits
of intemperance, the stomach at last lost the power of transmitting to the intestines
those bulky and unyielding bodies.
They therefore now remained in that organ, where they were exposed to corrosive stomach
juices which dissolved the knives’ housing, invariably made of animal horn, exposing the
sharp blades to wreak havoc upon the gob’s gut.
What can be gleaned from this old knives tale?
It is the opinion of the Old England Journal of Medicine, that if tempted by inebriation
and a desire to entertain those who care not for your wellbeing, steel your resolve and
if posed the question as to whether you can swallow any more knives, do not answer with
“all the knives on board the ship”.
Until the next issue of the Old England Journal of Medicine, I wish you rude health.
Stay sharp.