, into the throat of a patient, we cause extremely
disagreeable symptoms. There is nausea, gagging, and considerable
hindrance with the function of respiration. It therefore seems
remarkable that there are people whose physiologic construction
is such that, without apparent difficulty, they are enabled to
swallow a sword many inches long. Many of the exhibitionists
allow the visitors to touch the stomach and outline the point of
the sabre through the skin. The sabre used is usually very blunt
and of rounded edges, or if sharp, a guiding tube of thin metal
is previously swallowed. The explanation of these exhibitions is
as follows: The instrument enters the mouth and pharynx, then the
esophagus, traverses the cardiac end of the stomach, and enters
the latter as far as the antrum of the pylorus, the small
culdesac of the stomach. In their normal state in the adult these
organs are not in a straight line, but are so placed by the
passage of the sword. In the first place the head is thrown back,
so that the mouth is in the direction of the esophagus, the
curves of which disappear or become less as the sword proceeds;
the angle that the esophagus makes with the stomach is
obliterated, and finally the stomach is distended in the vertical
diameter and its internal curve disappears, thus permitting the
blade to traverse the greater diameter of the stomach.
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