WANDERING NEEDLES. 
735 
their polish. The majority were unbroken. They passed out 
of various parts of the body above the diaphragm at regular 
intervals, but in a sort of series, and always in the same 
direction. Most escaped in the region of the left nipple, and 
a few escaped in the arm, axilla, thigh, temple, and cheek. 
Sometimes several passed out of the same opening. The 
largest number which escaped in a single day was 61. A 
curious phenomenon preceded the escape of each needle. For 
some hours the pain was severe, and there was considerable 
fever. She then felt a sharp pain, like lightning, in the 
tissues, and on looking at the place at which this pain had 
been felt, the head of the needle was generally found project¬ 
ing. The needles invariably came out head foremost. No 
bleeding was occasioned, and not the least trace of inflammation 
followed. The doctor in attendance extracted 318. They 
were sometimes held firmly, and seemed to be contained in a 
sort of indurated canal. It was conjectured that they had 
been swallowed with suicidal intentions; but, on the other 
hand, the way in which the needles escaped in series, and 
their direction with the head outwards, suggested that they 
had been introduced through the skin. That little weight is 
to be attached to the place at which the needles escape as 
proof of their mode of introduction is evident from a case 
recorded by Villars of a girl who swallowed a large number of 
pins and needles, and two years afterwards, during a period 
of nine months, 200 passed out of the hand, arm, axilla, 
side of thorax, abdomen, and thigh, all on the left side. 
The pins, curiously, escaped more readily and with less pain 
than the needles. Many years ago a case was recorded by 
Dr. Otto, of Copenhagen, and mentioned at the time in the 
Lancet, in which 395 needles passed through the skin of an 
hysterical girl, who had probably swallowed them during an 
hysterical paroxysm; but these all emerged in the regions 
below the level of the diaphragm, and were collected in 
groups, which gave rise to inflammatory swellings of some 
size. One of these contained 100 needles. Quite recently 
Dr. Bigger described before the Society of Surgery of Dublin 
a case in which more than 300 needles were removed from 
the body of a woman who died in consequence of their 
presence. It is very remarkable in how few of the cases the 
needles were the cause of death, and how slight an interference 
with function their presence and movement cause. From 
time to time their detection by a magnetic needle is proposed 
as a novelty ; but as Dr. Gillette reminds us, this method was 
employed by Smee nearly 40 years ago, and has often been 
adopted since.— Lancet . 
