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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    t of Laving’ swallowed a knife is not neces- I sai’ily fatal: and forming an opinion of a I case, such as Dempster’s, I should do it j: on these grounds; first, that the knife I had remained so long in the stomach j without occasioning any alarming symp- toms, until produced by obvious causes, viz. the jolting of.the coach, &c. and i secondly, that so much of the knife had i been dissolved, as to make it probable that the whole wmuld have gradually dis- appeared. At any rate, it perhaps wmnld have been separated into so many peices, that they wmuld have passed through the Intestines, and so have been easily voided per anum. In Reid’s translation of M. Le Dran’s Surgical Cases, and Consultations, a case is indeed recorded of a Spanish Officer of rank, who having acciden- tally swallowed a fork, after several months of anxiety, and suffering, at length discharged it naturally, conside- rably decreased both in weight, and size. The circumstance therefore of a