In speaking of foreign bodies in the larynx and trachea, the
first to be considered will be liquids. There is a case on record
of an infant who was eating some coal, and being discovered by
its mother was forced to rapidly swallow some water. In the
excitement, part of the fluid swallowed fell into the trachea,
and death rapidly ensued. It is hardly necessary to mention the
instances in which pus or blood from ruptured abscesses entered
the trachea and caused subsequent asphyxiation. A curious
instance is reported by Gaujot of Val-de-Grace of a soldier who
was wounded in the Franco-Prussian war, and into whose wound an
injection of the tincture of iodin was made. The wound was of
such an extent as to communicate with a bronchus, and by this
means the iodin entered the respiratory tract, causing
suffocation. According to Poulet, Vidal de Cassis mentions an
inmate of the Charite Hospital, in Paris, who, full of wine, had
started to vomit; he perceived Corvisart, and knew he would be
questioned, therefore he quickly closed his mouth to hide the
proofs of his forbidden ingestion. The materials in his mouth
were forced into the larynx, and he was immediately asphyxiated.
Laennec, Merat, and many other writers have mentioned death
caused by the entrance of vomited materials into the
air-passages.
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