406 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [anNO 1700. 



An Ivory Bodhin cut out of a Womaiis Bladder. By Mr. Proby. Communi- 

 cated by Dr. Thomas Molyneux, F.R.S. N° l6o, p. 455. 



Dorcas Blake of Dublin, a lusty young woman, of a sanguine coiTiplexion, 

 about 20 years old, being much troubled with a hoarseness, was very desirous 

 to take a vomit for it: but her friends not consenting to it, she endeavoured to 

 provoke vomiting, by thrusting her finger into her throat ; which not answer- 

 ing her desires, she drew an ivory bodkin, of 4 inches long, out of her hair, 

 and thrust the small end forward into her throat ; on which she heaved so 

 often as be out of breath, and was obliged to stand upright to draw some air ; 

 which she did without taking the bodkin out of her throat; and at that instant 

 it slipped out of her fingers, and passed into her stomach. Though at first 

 alarmed, yet she found no immediate inconvenience. The next day about 

 noon, she felt a sharp pricking pain in the right side of her belly, lower than 

 the navel: towards evening she felt the pain nearer her right groin than before, 

 which hindered her from walking, and obliged her to go to her bed, where she 

 lay restless all that night, by reason of the excessive pain. Next day a midwife 

 searched her, and said she felt the end of the bodkin, but thought it was in a 

 gut. Being sent for next night, in searching her by the anus I could not find 

 it, but putting my finger into the vagina uteri, I felt the bodkin ; and because 

 she complained of a difficulty in voiding urine, I made use of my catheter, and 

 felt it, as I conceived, in the bladder ; but immediately trying a second time, I 

 could not find it, which made me dubious for some time what to do. Within 

 a fortnight after, in the presence of Dr. John Madden, and Dr. Thomas Mo- 

 lyneux, I conveyed a catheter into her bladder, where the bodkin was at that 

 time very plainly felt. And in about ten days more, after duly preparing her 

 body for the operation, I attempted to extract it, after the same manner as the 

 stone from women ; but having introduced the forceps into the neck of the 

 bladder, I very readily took hold of the bodkin, but could not move it. I then 

 passed my finger through the dilatation into the bladder, and tried to bring 

 the whole bodkin into the bladder, but could not ; nor could I turn it one way 

 or another, but round like a spindle. I often seized it with my forceps, but 

 found it impossible to remove it by reason of the position, which was the 

 smaller end, resting on the inside of the ischium, as I imagine. Finding all 

 my attempts to be fruitless, I despaired ever to eflect it this way, which made 

 me desist from farther trial for some time : but now the weather being more 

 favourable, and her pains increasing, notwithstanding that she was frequently 

 informed of the danger of the operation, by the physicians and me, yet by her 

 daily importunity, I was prevailed to attempt the extracting of it in the manner 



