SWALLOWING SPONGE. 
573 
it ; the stomach was not evacuated, but as the efforts to vomit 
became extreme, a portion of lung was driven through the thoracic 
opening with violence and a sort of explosion, and, at the same 
instant the stomach yielded its contents. 
These experiments appear to admit only of one explanation, of 
one conclusion, — that the act of vomiting is a forcible expiratory 
effort, the larynx being firmly closed, and the diaphragm perfectly 
inert. It must be regarded as singular that M. Bourdon, by whom 
the action of the expiratory muscles, in their various “ efforts,” 
has been so well investigated, should have adopted other views of 
the act of vomiting. 
It is not intended to state, that the act of vomiting is simply 
such as I have described. There are many facts which appear to 
shew that the oesophagus is not without its share of influence in 
this act, and it is plain that the cardiac orifice must be freely 
opened, for mere pressure upon the viscera of the abdomen will 
not, in ordinary circumstances, evacuate the contents of the stomach. 
To effect this open state of the cardiac orifice it is probably neces- 
sary that the diaphragm should, indeed, be in a relaxed rather than 
in a contracted state. 
SWALLOWING SPONGE. 
Dr. Chowne, in the Medical Society of London, detailed the 
particulars of a case in which an infant, three months and a half 
old, had swallowed a small piece of sponge that had been placed 
in the nipple of a sucking bottle. A dose of castor oil was given, 
and the sponge was passed per anum, fourteen hours after it had 
been swallowed. The case was unaccompanied by any unpleasant 
symptoms. 
He afterwards entered at some length into the question, on the 
influence of sponge on the system, and detailed two cases of horses, 
each of which had swallowed a piece of sponge. In one, the 
sponge was voided per anum at the end of nine days. In the 
other, it was supposed to be digested, as it was never to be traced 
in the fsecal evacuations. In the first case the sponge had a pe- 
culiar offensive odour. In this case little medicine was given. 
In the case in which it was supposed that the sponge had 
been digested, a variety of aloetic and other medicines were 
administered. 
