204 
Dr Marcet’s Accoun t of a Man 
mon way of making charcoal in pits ; although that process is 
always used in the gunpowder manufactories. It is for the same 
reason that animal charcoal, or that of coal, will not make gun- 
powder. Both of these are hard and brilliant ; and the former, 
in particular, has sometimes a pseudo-metallic lustre, equal to 
that of black-lead. The chain of analogy is thus extended 
among all these substances : — but it is time to terminate this com- 
munication. I am, yours, &c. &c. 
Edinbuegh, July 1822. J. MacCulloch. 
Art. II. — Account of a Man who lived Ten Years cfter having 
Swallowed a number of Clasp-Knives. By Alexander 
Marcet, M. D. F. R. S. late Physician to Guy’s Hospital 
In the month of June 1799, John Cummings, an American 
sailor, about twenty-three years of age, being with his ship on the 
coast of France, and having gone on shore with some of his ship- 
mates, about two miles from the town of Havre de Grace, he and 
his party directed their course towards a tent which they saw in 
a field, with a crowd of people round it. Being told that a play 
was acting there, they entered, and found in the tent a mounte- 
bank, who was entertaining the audience by pretending to swal- 
low clasp-knives. Having returned on board, and one of the 
party having related to the ship’s company the story of the 
knives, Cummings, after drinking freely, boasted that he could 
swallow knives as well as the Frenchman. He was taken at his 
word, and challenged to do it. Thus pressed, and though (as 
he candidly acknowledged in his narrative) ‘‘ not particularly 
anxious to take the job in hand, he did not like to go against 
his word, and having a good supply of grog inwardly,” he took 
his own pocket-knife, and on trying to swallow it, ‘‘ it slipped 
down his throat with great ease, and by the assistance of some 
drink, and the weight of the knife,” it was conveyed into his 
stomach. The spectators, however, were not satisfied with one 
experiment, and asked the operator whether he could swallow 
more his answer was, all the knives on board the ship ;” 
• Abridged, with the Author’s permission, from the Twelfth Volume of the 
Lojidon Medico-Ckirurgical Transactions. 
