iate fatal issue. Erichsen practiced extraction eight
months after the accident, and a pencil 5 1/2 inches long, having a
strong fecal odor, was brought out. The patient died the fourth day
after the operation, from peritonitis, and an autopsy showed the
perforation and agglutination of the two intestinal curvatures.
Getchell relates the description of a calculus in the vagina, formed
about a hair-pin as a nucleus. It is reported that a country girl came
to the Hotel-Dieu to consult Dupoytren, and stated that several years
before she had been violated by some soldiers, who had introduced an
unknown foreign body into her vagina, which she never could extract.
Dupuytren found this to be a small metallic pot, two inches in
diameter, with its concavity toward the uterus. It contained a solid
black substance of a most fetid odor.

Foreign bodies are generally introduced in the uterus either
accidentally in vaginal applications, or for the purpose of producing
abortion. Zuhmeister describes a case of a woman who shortly after the
first manifestations of pregnancy used a twig of a tree to penetrate
the matrix. She thrust it so strongly into the uterus that the wall was
perforated, and the twig became planted in the region of the kidneys.
Although six inches long and of the volume of a goose feather, this
branch remained five months in the pelvis without causing any
particular inconvenience, and was finally discharged by the rectum.
Brignatelli mentions the case of a woman who, in culpable practices,
introduced the stalk of a reed into her uterus. She suffered no
inconvenience until the next menstrual epoch which was accompanied by
violent pains. She presented the appearance of one in the pains of
labor. The matrix had augmented in volume, and the orifice of the
uterine cervix was closed, but there was hypertrophy as if in the
second or third month of pregnancy. After examination a piece of reed
three cm. long was extracted from the uterus, its external face being
incrusted with hard calcareous material. Meschede of Schwetz, Germany,
mentions death from a hair-pin in the uterine cavity.

Crouzit was called to see a young girl who had attempted criminal
abortion by a darning-needle. When he arrived a fetus of about three
months had already been expelled, and had been wounded by the
instrument. It was impossible to remove the needle, and the placenta
was not expelled for two days. Eleven days afterward the girl commenced
to ha