A statement of the case of Wm. Dempster, a juggler who died in consequence of having swallowed a table-knife / by John Hadfield.

  • Hadfield, G. J. (Geoffrey John)
Date:
[1824]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A statement of the case of Wm. Dempster, a juggler who died in consequence of having swallowed a table-knife / by John Hadfield. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    on of the Medical men of the Carlisle Dispensary, as well as of others rankino’ deservedly high in the Profession, that it would be advisable to make an incision into the stomach, and extract the knife. He then cites a case, in which such an operation was performed abroad with entire success. The case he brings o forward may be true, but we have ma- ny almost miraculous accounts of suc- cessful Surgical operations abroad, ( for instance the Coesarean ) which the experience of this country does not bear us out in attachino^ credence to : and at all events, it is only a solitary case. The danger of such an operation, I should conceive, that every Surgeon must consider as exceedingly great. The statement of Dr. Barnes begins with an account of a case having occured, in which a man lived ten years after hav- ing swallowed several clasp-knives ; and I believe, the.»*e are other cases recorded of persons having swallowed knives. This shews then, that the circumstance