American Medical Association, March 1, 1896, there is a report of a
case of hair-swallowing.

Foreign Bodies in the Intestines.--White relates the history of a case
in which a silver spoon was swallowed and successfully excised from the
intestinal canal. Houston mentions a maniac who swallowed a rusty iron
spoon 11 inches long. Fatal peritonitis ensued and the spoon was found
impacted in the last acute turn of the duodenum. In 1895, in London,
there was exhibited a specimen, including the end of the ileum with the
adjacent end of the colon, showing a dessert spoon which was impacted
in the latter. The spoon was seven inches long, and its bowl measured
1 1/2 inches across. There was much ulceration of the mucous membrane.
This spoon had been swallowed by a lunatic of twenty-two, who had made
two previous ineffectual attempts at suicide. Mason describes the case
of a man of sixty-five who, after death by strangulated hernia, was
opened, and two inches from the ileocecal valve was found an earthen
egg-cup which he had swallowed. Mason also relates the instance of a
man who swallowed metal balls 2 1/2 inches in diameter; and the case of
a Frenchman who, to prevent the enemy from finding them, swallowed a
box containing despatches from Napoleon. He was kept prisoner until the
despatches were passed from his bowels. Denby discovered a large
egg-cup in the ileum of a man. Fillion mentions an instance of recovery
following the perforation of the jejunum by a piece of horn which had
been swallowed. Madden tells of a person, dying of intestinal
obstruction, in whose intestines were found several ounces of crude
mercury and a plum-stone. The mercury had evidently been taken for
purgative effect. Rodenbaugh mentions a most interesting case of beans
sprouting while in the bowel. Harrison relates a curious case in which
the swallowed lower epiphysis of the femur of a rabbit made its way
from the bowel to the bladder, and was discharged thence by the urethra.

In cases of appendicitis foreign bodies have been found lodged in or
about the vermiform appendix so often that it is quite a common lay
idea that appendicitis is invariably the result of the lodgment of some
foreign body accidentally swallowed. In recent years the literature of
this subject proves that a great variety of foreign bodies may be
present. A few of the interesting cases will be cited in the following
lines:--

In the New England Medical Journal, 1843, is an acc