in the walls of
the stomach. Gross speaks of a man of thirty who was in the habit of
giving exhibitions of sword-swallowing in public houses, and who
injured his esophagus to such an extent as to cause abscess and death.
In the Journal of the American Medical Association, March 1, 1896,
there is an extensive list of gastrotomies performed for the removal of
knives and other foreign bodies, from the seventeenth century to the
present time.

The physiologic explanation of sword-swallowing is quite interesting.
We know that when we introduce the finger, a spoon, brush, etc., into
the throat of a patient, we cause extremely disagreeable symptoms.
There is nausea, gagging, and considerable hindrance with the function
of respiration. It therefore seems remarkable that there are people
whose physiologic construction is such that, without apparent
difficulty, they are enabled to swallow a sword many inches long. Many
of the exhibitionists allow the visitors to touch the stomach and
outline the point of the sabre through the skin. The sabre used is
usually very blunt and of rounded edges, or if sharp, a guiding tube of
thin metal is previously swallowed. The explanation of these
exhibitions is as follows: The instrument enters the mouth and pharynx,
then the esophagus, traverses the cardiac end of the stomach, and
enters the latter as far as the antrum of the pylorus, the small
culdesac of the stomach. In their normal state in the adult these
organs are not in a straight line, but are so placed by the passage of
the sword. In the first place the head is thrown back, so that the
mouth is in the direction of the esophagus, the curves of which
disappear or become less as the sword proceeds; the angle that the
esophagus makes with the stomach is obliterated, and finally the
stomach is distended in the vertical diameter and its internal curve
disappears, thus permitting the blade to traverse the greater diameter
of the stomach. According to Guyot-Daubes, these organs, in a straight
line, extend a distance of from 55 to 62 cm., and consequently the
performer is enabled to swallow an instrument of this length. The
length is divided as follows:--

Mouth and pharynx, . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 to 12 cm.
Esophagus, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 to 28 cm.
Distended stomach, . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 to 22 cm.
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55 to 62 cm.