Sometime after 100 more came from a
tumor on the shoulder. As all the symptoms in this case were
abdominal, it was supposed that during an epileptic seizure this
girl had swallowed the needles; but as she was of an hysteric
nature it seems more likely they had entered the body through the
skin. There is an instance in which 132 needles were extracted
from a young lady's person. Caen describes a woman of twenty-six,
while in prison awaiting trial, succeeding in committing suicide
by introducing about 30 pins and needles in the chest region,
over the heart. Her method was to gently introduce them, and then
to press them deeper with a prayer-book. An autopsy showed that
some of the pins had reached the lungs, some were in the
mediastinum, on the back part of the right auricle; the
descending vena cave was perforated, the anterior portion of the
left ventricle was transfixed by a needle, and several of the
articles were found in the liver. Andrews removed 300 needles
from the body of an insane female. The Lancet records an account
of a suicide by the penetration of a darning-needle in the
epigastrium. There were nine punctures in this region, and in the
last the needle was left in situ and fixed by worsted.
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