VOL, LXVII.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 187 



charged an amazing quantity of pus; but, as tlie tension was still great, he 

 applied a linseed poultice over the common dressings: yet, in a few days a 2d 

 abscess began to form towards the vertebrae of the loins, between the false ribs and 

 the OS ilium, which was rapid in its progress, for it was brought to maturation, and 

 opened on the 2()th. On the 3 1st he was alarmed with a gangrenous appearance 

 of the whole integuments of the abdomen : for this she took I dr. of powdered 

 bark in red port every 3 hours; but, as vesications and every symptom of a 

 sphacelus continued to increase, he also used the bark externally, in embroca- 

 tions and cataplasms morning and evening. 



This treatment soon stopped the mortification, and the parts sloughing off 

 largely, left 3 holes at nearly equal distances from one another, between the first 

 opening and the left os ilium, besides several others in different parts of the 

 belly; but as the discharge was immoderate, he thought the patient in the 

 utmost danger. However, the same course was persevered in, and at the latter 

 end of August another abscess appeared lower down, towards the right groin; 

 he ordered it to be poulticed, and left it to open of itself, which it did on the 

 21st of September. He was immediately called to her; and, on carefully 

 examining the part, he found a hard substance deeply seated, which he directly 

 extracted.* It was making its way towards the integuments from the extremity 

 of the appendix vermiformis of the caecum, wliich probably, and fortunately, 

 by former inflammations had adhered to the peritonaeum. The large end came 

 first, and the small end was within the appendix vermiformis of the caecum at 

 the time he took it out; for, immediately on the extraction, some excrements 

 followed, and among them some dark brown particles which he discovered to 

 be filings of iron, which the patient had formerly taken in a large quantity, as 

 she had never been regular like other women. On a careful examination he 

 found some of these filings quite reduced to rust, but still retaining 

 their form as they came from under the file. Some faeces came through this 

 last wound daily, frequently most copiously; and sometimes, though the 

 external orifice was larger, by being confined with the dressings, they insinuated 



* In pi. 2, fig. 4, 5, are different views of tlie external surface of this irregular substance, and of 

 so much of its nucleus as projects out of the round part, exactly as both appeared on being talven 

 out of the body. The whole was of a dusky brown colour, and had a gi'eat resemblance to a small 

 shrivelled pear. Fig. 6, is a section of tlie round part, which seemed to be formed of fine fibrous 

 substances, closely cemented together by an eartliy matter, and of the peg of crab-tree wood, its 

 nucleus. This figure also shows how far the peg went in, and also an incrustation of stony matter on 

 it. The nucleus, Mr. F. believed to be the smaller end of that part of a silk engine called a star, 

 at which machine tlie patient had been employed before she was 5 years of age ; therefore it must 

 have been lodged at least l6' years within the appendix vermiformis of the caecum, as she remem- 

 bered nothing of swallowing it, and as during that course of years she had fi-equently been afflicted 

 with the severe colics beforementioned. — Orig. 



B B 2 



