42 Case of a Child who swallowed an Iron Nail. 



on the left side, over which a poultice was applied. On 

 removing the poultice, just before I visited the child, a 

 small aperture had taken place in the middle of the tu- 

 mour, and the point of a hard substance was visible. I 

 could only at first feel, from its size and roughness, that 

 it was not a needle, as had been supposed ; but, on the 

 child's going to sleep, it projected sufficiently to show a 

 part of a nail, which I held, and, by extending the open- 

 ing, and dissecting down and around the head, extracted. 

 It is a cut fourpenny nail, of a large size, almost an inch 

 and a half long, a little bent. 



The child is large for its age, and has enjoyed good 

 health, nor has it suffered any other injury from the 

 coinse of this nail than a small sore, which is now nearly 

 healed. 



This nail must have been taken by" the mouth, and 

 swallowed head foremost, probably at the time of cutting 

 its teeth, of which it has four, at which period children 

 are known to be fond of carrying hard substances to 

 their mouth, and its discharge seems fortunately to have 

 been directed to a part of the body least liable to be in- 

 jured by it. 



I liave been informed, by a physician of undoubted ve- 

 racity, that he extracted a needle from a lady's arm, which 

 she recollected to have swallowed many months before, 

 but I have never heard of any thing so large as this nail 

 travelling a similar course in the human body, with so 

 little injury to it. 



Jas. Lyons. 

 Richmond J January 16th, 1806. 



