hinking no one would suspect he possessed the weapon; while he was
excited it slipped into the stomach, from whence it subsequently
penetrated through to the skin; the man recovered. There is another old
case of a man at Prague who swallowed a knife which some few weeks
afterward made its exit from an abdominal abscess. Gooch quotes the
case of a man, belonging to the Court of Paris, who, nine months after
swallowing a knife, voided it at the groin. In the sixteenth century
Laurentius Joubert relates a similar case, the knife having remained in
the body two years. De Diemerbroeck mentions the fact that a knife ten
inches long was extracted by gastrotomy, and placed among the rarities
in the anatomic chamber of the University at Leyden. The operation was
done in 1635 at Koenigsberg, by Schwaben, who for his surgical prowess
was appointed surgeon to the King of Poland. The patient lived eight
years after the operation.

It is said that in 1691, while playing tricks with a knife 6 1/2 inches
long, a country lad of Saxony swallowed it, point first. He came under
the care of Weserern, physician to the Elector of Brandenburgh, who
successfully extracted it, two years and seven months afterward, from
the pit of the lad's stomach. The horn haft of the knife was
considerably digested. In 1720 Hubner of Rastembourg operated on a
woman who had swallowed an open knife. After the incision it was found
that the knife had almost pierced the stomach and had excited a slight
suppuration. After the operation recovery was very prompt.

Bell of Davenport, Iowa, performed gastrotomy on a man, who, while
attempting a feat of legerdemain, allowed a bar of lead, 10 1/8 inches
long, 1 1/2 inches wide, and 9 1/2 ounces in weight, to slip into his
stomach. The bar was removed and the patient recovered. Gussenbauer
gives an account of a juggler who turned his head to bow an
acknowledgment of applause while swallowing a sword; he thus brought
his upper incisors against the sword, which broke off and slipped into
his stomach. To relieve suffocation the sword was pushed further down.
Gastrotomy was performed, and the piece of sword 11 inches long was
extracted; as there was perforation of the stomach before the
operation, the patient died of peritonitis.

An hour after ingestion, Bernays of St. Louis successfully removed a
knife 9 1/2 inches long. By means of an army-bullet forceps the knife
was extracted easily through an incision 5/8 inch long