We
quite often read of these instances in lay-journals, but it is
seldom that a case comes under the immediate observation of a
thoroughly scientific mind. There is, however, on record a
remarkable instance accredited to Jamieson of Shanghai who
presented to the Royal College of Surgeons a pair of feet with
the following history: Some months previously a Chinese beggar
had excited much pity and made a good business by showing the
mutilated stumps of his legs, and the feet that had belonged to
them slung about his neck. While one day scrambling out of the
way of a constable who had forbidden this gruesome spectacle, he
was knocked down by a carriage in the streets of Shanghai, and
was taken to the hospital, where he was questioned about the
accident which deprived him of his feet. After selling the
medical attendant his feet he admitted that he had purposely
performed the amputations himself, starting about a year
previously. He had fastened cords about his ankles, drawing them
as tightly as he could bear them, and increasing the pressure
every two or three days. For a fortnight his pain was extreme,
but when the bones were bared his pains ceased. At the end of a
month and a half he was able to entirely remove his feet by
partly snapping and partly cutting the dry bone.
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