246 On Diseases and Accidents of Farmers, 



without suspicion beinj^ attached to the true source of the 

 calamity, nor could relief be given even had it been as- 

 certained.* If those who thus wantonly trifle with their 

 health, knew the structure of the alimentary canal, they 

 would easily comprehend the force of the caution, and 

 avoid the practice which is the ground of it. 



Eating Black Cherries. — Several cases have occurred 

 in Philadelphia, of death having speedily taking place in 

 persons who have eaten freely of black cherries, and 

 drunk cold water soon afterwards. Not knowing the 

 particular state of the system at the time, I cannot pre- 

 tend to say whether the coldness of the water may not 

 have had some agency in the production of the evil ef- 

 fects that followed ; but the number of cases that have 

 occurred, ought to serve as a caution on the subject. 



Persons walking through fields of grain, or timothy 

 grass, ought to avoid the common practice of stripping up 

 the heads and eating them : more than one death is re- 

 collected to have occurred from this cause, owing to the 

 seeds, husks, or beard of the seeds being suddenly drawn 

 into the windpipe, and producing suffocation. 



The synovia or " joint oil" of the big toe, will some- 

 times collect in undue quantity, and cause a puffy tumour, 

 which when pressed by the shoe is acutely painful. It 

 is to be cured by making as small an opening as possible 

 to admit the discharge of the glairey fluid, bv gentle pres- 

 sure. The w^ound is then to be instandy closed to pre- 

 vent the admission of air to the joint, which w ould cause 

 inflammation. It is then to be covered with sticking 

 plaster, and a linen or cotton compress bound on the 



* I allude to the death of a promising young man, who had 

 just entered upon the sacred duty of a preacher, from an in- 

 flammation in the bowels, caused by a bean slipping into the 

 appendicula vermiformis. This note is inserted for the infor- 

 mation of the medical reader. 



