198 Avent’s Case of Foreign Body in the Bowels. 
in two or three instances afterwards, I think, we observed 
this singular appearance of the grass on the prairies, indica¬ 
ting what might, perhaps, without impiety, be called ‘■the 
foot-prints of the Deity'!’ 
Very respectfully and truly, I am, 
My dear Sir, yours, 
C. W. SHORT. 
Professor Drake, ( 
Medical Institute of Louisville,$ 
February, 1845. 
Art. 11. — A Case in which a sharp-pointed body was swallow¬ 
ed by a child . passing the bowels ivithout injury. By B. 
W. Avent, of Murfreesboro’, Tenn. 
On Thursday evening, 8th July, I was requested to visit a 
little girl, four years old, who, whilst engaged at play, had ac¬ 
cidentally swallowed a sharp-pointed instrument, about two 
and a half inches long. This instrument was originally the 
handle of a long-bladed knife, the jaws of which had been 
tiled off about its centre, leaving the back-spring, which had 
been ground very sharp at its point. 
I saw the patient an hour after the accident had occurred, 
and as might have been expected under such circumstances, 
found the family in great alarm, and in the act of preparing 
an emetic, with a view to cause the stomach to eject this 
foreign body.. 
The little girl was suffering no pain at all, and on examina¬ 
tion I w^as satisfied that the instrument had passed the cardiac 
orifice without producing any injury in its passage. Aware 
that the point of this instrument was sufficiently sharp to 
penetrate the stomach, should it come in contact with it du¬ 
ring any contractile action of that organ, I at once explained 
to the parents the great danger of medical interference, and 
advised that the unassisted efforts of nature should be relied 
upon for relief, at least until some unpleasant symptoms 
