instances.

The presence of a foreign body in the larynx is at all times the cause
of distressing symptoms, and, sometimes, a substance of the smallest
size will cause death. There is a curious accident recorded that
happened to a young man of twenty-three, who was anesthetized in order
to extract a tooth. A cork had been placed between the teeth to keep
the mouth open. The tooth was extracted but slipped from the forceps,
and, together with the cork, fell into the pharynx. The tooth was
ejected in an effort at vomiting, but the cork entered the larynx, and,
after violent struggles, asphyxiation caused death in an hour. The
autopsy demonstrated the presence of the cork in the larynx. A somewhat
analogous case, though not ending fatally, was reported by Hertz of a
woman of twenty-six, who was anesthetized for the extraction of the
right second inferior molar. The crown broke off during the operation,
and immediately after the extraction she had a fit of coughing. About
fifteen days later she experienced pain in the lungs. Her symptoms
increased to the fifth week, when she became so feeble as to be
confined to her bed. A body seemed to be moving in the trachea,
synchronously with respiration. At the end of the fifth week the
missing crown of the tooth was expelled after a violent fit of
coughing; the symptoms immediately ameliorated, and recovery was rapid
thereafter. Aronsohn speaks of a child who was playing with a toy
wind-instrument, and in his efforts to forcibly aspirate air through
it, the child drew the detached reed into the respiratory passages,
causing asphyxiation. At the autopsy the foreign body was found at the
superior portion of the left bronchus. There are other cases in which,
while sucking oranges or lemons, seeds have been aspirated; and there
is a case in which, in a like manner, the claw of a crab was drawn into
the air-passages. There are two cases mentioned in which children
playing with toy balloons, which they inflated with their breath, have,
by inspiration, reversed them and drawn the rubber of the balloon into
the opening of the glottis, causing death. Aronsohn, who has already
been quoted, and whose collection of instances of this nature is
probably the most extensive, speaks of a child in the street who was
eating an almond; a carriage threw the child down and he suddenly
inspired the nut into the air-passages, causing immediate asphyxia The
same author also mentions a soldier walking in t