Some of these individuals also have the faculty of
swallowing several pebbles, as large even as hen's eggs, and of
disgorging them one by one by simple contractions of the stomach.
From time to time individuals are seen who possess the power of
swallowing pebbles, knives, bits of broken glass, etc., and, in
fact, there have been recent tricky exhibitionists who claimed to
be able to swallow poisons, in large quantities, with impunity.
Henrion, called "Casaandra," a celebrated example of this class,
was born at Metz in 1761. Early in life he taught himself to
swallow pebbles, sometimes whole and sometimes after breaking
them with his teeth. He passed himself off as an American savage;
he swallowed as many as 30 or 40 large pebbles a day,
demonstrating the fact by percussion on the epigastric region.
With the aid of salts he would pass the pebbles and make them do
duty the next day. He would also swallow live mice and crabs with
their claws cut. It was said that when the mice were introduced
into his mouth, they threw themselves into the pharynx where they
were immediately suffocated and then swallowed. The next morning
they would be passed by the rectum flayed and covered with a
mucous substance.
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