an who habitually introduced hair-pins and common pins into her
bladder. She acquired this mania after an attempt at dilatation of the
urethra in the relief of an obstinate case of strangury. Rode reports
the case of a woman who had introduced a hog's penis into her urethra.
It was removed by an incision into this canal, but the patient died in
five days of septicemia. There is a curious case quoted of a young
domestic of fourteen who was first seen suffering with pain in the
sides of the genital organs, retention of urine, and violent tenesmus.
She was examined by a midwife who found nothing, but on the following
day the patient felt it necessary to go to bed. Her general symptoms
persisted, and meanwhile the bladder became much distended. The patient
had made allusion to the loss of a hair-pin, a circumstance which
corresponded with the beginning of her trouble. Examination showed the
orifice of the urethra to be swollen and painful to the touch, and from
its canal a hair-pin 6.5 cm. long was extracted. The patient was unable
to urinate, and it was necessary to resort to catheterization. By
evening the general symptoms had disappeared, and the next day the
patient urinated as usual.

There are peculiar cases of hair in the bladder, in which all history
as to the method of entrance is denied, and which leave as the only
explanation the possibility that the bladder was in communication with
some dermoid cyst. Hamelin mentions a case of this nature. It is said
that all his life Sir William Elliot was annoyed by passing hairs in
urination. They would lodge in the urethra and cause constant
irritation. At his death a stone was taken from the bladder, covered
with scurf and hair. Hall relates the case of a woman of sixty, from
whose bladder, by dilatation of the urethra, was removed a bundle of
hairs two inches long, which, Hall says, without a doubt had grown from
the vesical walls.

Retention of Foreign Bodies in the Pelvis.--It is a peculiar fact that
foreign bodies which once gain entrance to the pelvis may be tolerated
in this location for many years. Baxter describes a man who suffered an
injury from a piece of white board which entered his pelvis, and
remained in position for sixteen and a half years; at this time a piece
of wood 7 1/2 inches long was discharged at stool, and the patient
recovered. Jones speaks of a case in which splinters of wood were
retained in the neighborhood of the rectum and vagina for sixte