who had Swalloxved a. Number of Clasp-Knives. S07 
hospital. I find, however, by the hospital records, that, on the 
28th of October, he was discharged in an improved state ; arid 
he did not appear again at the hospital till September 1808, 
that is, after an interval of nearly a year since his former appli- 
cation. He now became a patient of Dr Gurry, under whose 
care he remained, gradually and miserably sinking under his 
suffering, till March 1809, when he diedj in a state of extreme 
emaciation. 
The following interesting letter from Dr Lara, (probably to 
Dr Curry, as it was found among his papers), supplies some of 
the particulars respecting tlie patient’s illness while *011 board 
the Isis. 
“ Sir, 
“ William Cummings, aged twenty-nine years, a seaman be- 
longing to H. M. S. Isis, was reported “ sick” to me, as surgeon 
to that ship, on the 6th of December 1805. He complained of 
excessive pain in the stomach and bowels, incapacity of retain- 
ing any thing on the stomach, and severe pain in walking or 
standing erect. These symptoms he attributed to having swal- 
lowed, during the three preceding days, nineteen or twenty 
pocket-knives, and one paper knife-case ; the latter he stated to 
have been presently returned, but all the former retained ! 
Incredulous of this statement, I made every possible in- 
quiry ; and, on the evidence of those who solemnly declared 
they witnessed the fact, the number of knives actually taken in- 
to the stomach appeared to be fourteen ! The greater part of 
these knives were nearly four inches long, and full one inch in 
their extreme breadth. It seems, he sought no remuneration 
for this extraordinary exploit, but a plentiful supply of what is 
termed grog” at sea, i. e. spirits and water ; nor did he appre- 
hend any attendant danger, as he had (he said), a few years 
previously, swallowed eighteen knives at Boston in America, of 
which he got rid in four days, without the least inconvenience. 
“ I must here observe, that an inhabitant of Boston, whom 
I met at St John’s, Newfoundland, in the summer of 1806, as- 
sured me, that the fact of ,a man named William Cummings 
haying swallowed several knives was well remembered by many 
inhabitants of Boston, and that a number of knives said to have 
