Dublin, in 1844, Houston
reports the case of a girl of sixteen who inhaled the wooden peg of a
small fiddle and in a fit of coughing three months afterward expelled
it from the lungs. In 1849 Solly communicated the case of a man who
inhaled a pebble placed on his tongue to relieve thirst. On removal
this pebble weighed 144 grains. Watson of Murfreesboro removed a
portion of an umbrella rib from a trachea, but as he failed to locate
or remove the ferrule, the case terminated fatally. Brigham mentions a
child of five who was seized with a fit of coughing while she had a
small brass nail in her mouth; pulmonary phthisis ensued, and in one
year she died. At the postmortem examination the nail was found near
the bifurcation of the right bronchus, and, although colored black, was
not corroded.

Marcacci reported an observation of the removal of a bean from the
bronchus of a child of three and a half years. The child swallowed the
bean while playing, immediately cried, and became hoarse. No one having
noticed the accident, a diagnosis of croup was made and four leeches
were applied to the neck. The dyspnea augmented during the night, and
there was a whistling sound with each respiratory movement. On the next
day the medical attendants suggested the possibility of a foreign body
in the larynx. Tracheotomy was performed but the dyspnea continued,
showing that the foreign body was lodged below the incision. The blood
of one of the cut vessels entered the trachea and caused an extra
paroxysm of dyspnea, but the clots of blood were removed by curved
forceps. Marcacci fils practised suction, and placed the child on its
head, but in vain. A feather was then introduced in the wound with the
hope that it would clean the trachea and provoke respiration; when the
feather was withdrawn the bean followed. The child was much
asphyxiated, however, and five or six minutes elapsed before the first
deep inspiration. The wound was closed, the child recovered its voice,
and was well four days afterward. Annandale saw a little patient who
had swallowed a bead of glass, which had lodged in the bronchus. He
introduced the handle of a scalpel into the trachea, producing
sufficient irritation to provoke a brusque expiration, and at the
second attempt the foreign body was expelled. Hulke records the case of
a woman, the victim of a peculiar accident happening during the
performance of tracheotomy, for an affection of the larynx. The
internal canule