Discharge of Vaginal Parietes, Part 2

Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine
by George M. Gould, M.D., Walter L. Pyle, M.D.

(Page 25 of 30)

She had forgotten its existence until reminded of it by irritation some years before death. It was remarkable that when the pessary was removed it was found to have largely retained its original wax covering. Hurxthal mentions the removal of a pessary which had been in the pelvis for forty-one years. Jackson speaks of a glove-pessary remaining in the vagina thirty-five years. Mackey reports the removal of a glass pessary after fifty-five years' incarceration.

There is an account of a young girl addicted to onanism who died from the presence of a pewter cup in her vagina; it had been there fourteen months. Shame had led her to conceal her condition for all the period during which she suffered pain in the hypogastrium, and diarrhea. She had steadily refused examination. Bazzanella of Innsbruck removed a drinking glass from the vagina by means of a pair of small obstetric forceps. The glass had been placed there ten years previously by the woman's husband. Szigethy reports the case of a woman of seventy-five who, some thirty years before, introduced into her vagina a ball of string previously dipped in wax.

The ball was effectual in relieving a prolapsed uterus, and was worn with so little discomfort that she entirely forgot it until it was forced out of place by a violent effort. The ball was seven inches in circumference, and covered with mucus, but otherwise unchanged. Breisky is accredited with the report of a case of a woman suffering with dysmenorrhea, in whose vagina was found a cotton reel which had been introduced seven years before. The woman made a good recovery. Pearse mentions a woman of thirty-six who had suffered menorrhagia for ten days, and was in a state of great prostration and suffering from strong colicky pains. On examination he found a silk-bobbin about an inch from the entrance, which the patient had introduced fourteen years before.

She had already had attacks of peritonitis and hemorrhage, and a urethrovaginal fistula was found. The bobbin itself was black. This patient had been married twice, and had been cared for by physicians, but the existence of a body 3/4 inch long had never been noticed. Poulet quotes two curious cases: in one a pregnant woman was examined by a doctor who diagnosticated carcinomatous degeneration of the neck of the uterus. Capuron, who was consulted relative to the case, did not believe that the state of the woman's health warranted the diagnosis, and on further examination the growth was found to have been a sponge which had previously been introduced by the woman into the vagina. The other case, reported by Guyon, exemplified another error in diagnosis. The patient was a woman who suffered from continuous vaginal hemorrhage, and had been given extensive treatment without success. Finally, when the woman was in extreme exhaustion, an injection of vinegar-water was ordered, the use of which was followed by the expulsion from the vagina of a live leech of a species very abundant in the country. The hemorrhage immediately ceased and health returned.

There is a record of a woman of twenty-eight who was suddenly surprised by some one entering her chamber at the moment she was introducing a cedar pencil into her vagina. With the purpose of covering up her act and dissembling the woman sat down, and the shank of the wood was pushed through the posterior wall of the vagina into the peritoneal cavity. The intestine was, without doubt, pierced in two of its curves, which was demonstrated later by an autopsy. A plastic exudation had evidently agglutinated the intestine at the points of penetration, and prevented an immediate fatal issue. Erichsen practiced extraction eight months after the accident, and a pencil 5 1/2 inches long, having a strong fecal odor, was brought out.

The patient died the fourth day after the operation, from peritonitis, and an autopsy showed the perforation and agglutination of the two intestinal curvatures. Getchell relates the description of a calculus in the vagina, formed about a hair-pin as a nucleus. It is reported that a country girl came to the Hotel-Dieu to consult Dupoytren, and stated that several years before she had been violated by some soldiers, who had introduced an unknown foreign body into her vagina, which she never could extract. Dupuytren found this to be a small metallic pot, two inches in diameter, with its concavity toward the uterus. It contained a solid black substance of a most fetid odor.

Foreign bodies are generally introduced in the uterus either accidentally in vaginal applications, or for the purpose of producing abortion. Zuhmeister describes a case of a woman who shortly after the first manifestations of pregnancy used a twig of a tree to penetrate the matrix. She thrust it so strongly into the uterus that the wall was perforated, and the twig became planted in the region of the kidneys. Although six inches long and of the volume of a goose feather, this branch remained five months in the pelvis without causing any particular inconvenience, and was finally discharged by the rectum. Brignatelli mentions the case of a woman who, in culpable practices, introduced the stalk of a reed into her uterus. She suffered no inconvenience until the next menstrual epoch which was accompanied by violent pains. She presented the appearance of one in the pains of labor. The matrix had augmented in volume, and the orifice of the uterine cervix was closed, but there was hypertrophy as if in the second or third month of pregnancy. After examination a piece of reed three cm. long was extracted from the uterus, its external face being incrusted with hard calcareous material. Meschede of Schwetz, Germany, mentions death from a hair-pin in the uterine cavity.

Crouzit was called to see a young girl who had attempted criminal abortion by a darning-needle. When he arrived a fetus of about three months had already been expelled, and had been wounded by the instrument. It was impossible to remove the needle, and the placenta was not expelled for two days. Eleven days afterward the girl commenced to have pains in the inguinal region, and by the thirty-fifth day an elevation was formed, and the pains increased in violence. On the seventy-ninth day a needle six inches long was expelled from the swelling in the groin, and the patient recovered. Lisfranc extracted from the uterus of a woman who supposed herself to be pregnant at the third month, a fragment of a large gum-elastic sound which during illicit maneuvers had broken off within five cm. of its extremity, and penetrated the organ. Lisfranc found there was not the slightest sign of pregnancy, despite the woman's belief that she was with child.