who swallowed a Table-knife. 
stomach, if the handle of the knife could be felt as the director 
to the surgeon. The incision should be m the direction of the 
linea semilunaris. The stomach should be previously quite 
empty of food and of liquids. The patient was to be support- 
ed for ten days after the operation, by glysters of broth and 
jelly ; after ten days, jelly might be given. 
As Dempster died at a considerable distance from Carlisle, 
and no authentic account of the dissection has been published, 
I am not aware of what change the knife had undergone by be- 
ing retained in the stomach, nor of the precise appearances the 
abdominal viscera exhibited after death. The present commu- 
nication, it is hoped, will induce the surgeons who examined 
the body, to give an account of their dissection to the public. 
A case very similar to the above occurred in Prussia in 1 635, 
of which a very interesting account was written in Latin, by Dr 
Daniel Beckher of Dantzic, and published at Leyden in 1636. 
The case is well authenticated. BeckheFs account of it was sub- 
mitted to the Faculty of Leyden, who affixed their names to 
their criticism of his work. It received from them unqualified 
praise. They passed many high encomiums on the author ; 
considered the case singular, the cure miraculous, and the his- 
tory of it faithfully and accurately detailed. The style of the 
work is elegant and classical ; the case is described with much 
minuteness, simplicity and clearness, and is accompanied with 
many excellent and valuable observations. The book is div ided 
into four sections. The first treats of the swallowing of the knife ; 
the second, the consultation of the Faculty; the third, the in- 
cision of the abdomen and stomach, and the extraction of the 
knife ; and the fourth, the healing of the wound. The follow- 
ing is an abstract of the case. On the morning of the 29th of 
May 1635, Andrew Grunbeide, a young peasant, feeling sick at 
stomach from having committed some irregularity in his mode 
of living, endeavoured to excite vomiting by irritating the fauces 
with the handle of a knife, but the desired effect not beiiicr im- 
mediately produced, he thrust it further down, in consequence 
of which it escaped his hold, and gradually descended into the 
stomach. The knife-eater was terribly frightened at the time, 
and continued afterwards much depressed, yet was able to fol- 
low his accustomed employment without much inconvenience, 
x 2 
