185 YEARS AGO
Cuts like a knife, feels so wrong
BOSTON — Dr Alexander Marcet takes no great delight in presenting the case history of John Cummings, an American sailor born with less good sense than a common garden slug. Mr Cummings is a man whose maladies are wholly self-afflicted — he has, on at least three drunken occasions, swallowed great numbers of clasp knives. Why would he do such a crazy thing? According to what he told physicians, it was simply to live up to his boasts and wagers and to entertain fellow seamen. After the first incident, which took place in 1799, the sturdy sailor reportedly passed three of four swallowed knives without too much trouble (the fourth remained in his body). Six years later he was goaded into swallowing a larger number of knives (about 14) and became very ill as a result, but he eventually fully recovered in a Charleston hospital. The final folly of Mr Cummings was a bender during which he was cajoled into swallowing yet more clasp-knives. The attending physician was helpless — tinctures of iron, enemas and opium did little to help the man. He lived about three years longer in very poor health. When he finally died, the autopsy revealed a great number of knife fragments in his body.
Source: The Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, 1 December, 1822

121 YEARS AGO
Aussie turns poison weed to promising new anesthetic
PORT GERMAIN, AUSTRALIA — It's as effective a local anesthetic as cocaine but without all the excitement, says Australian researcher Dr John Reid on drumine, his newly discovered drug. He isolated the new drug from the native Australian Euphorbin drummondii plant, better known as caustic weed. Though the doctor concedes more testing is needed, he is quite confident the drug has a bright future. He's already used subcutaneous drumine to successfully relieve pain from sprains and sciatica.
Source: The Lancet, 18 December 1886

Fragments of knives found in the stomach of John Cummings as shown to members of the Medical and Chirurgical Society of London on 19 March 1822. (By kind permission of The Royal Society of Medicine, London)