Sankey mentions an epileptic who
was found dead in his bed in the Oxford County Asylum; the man
had accomplished his end by placing a round pebble in each
nostril, and thoroughly impacting in his throat a strip of
flannel done up in a roll. In his "Institutes of Surgery" Sir
Charles Bell remarks that his predecessor at the Middlesex
Hospital entered into a conversation with his barber over an
attempt at suicide in the neighborhood, during which the surgeon
called the "would-be suicide" a fool, explaining to the barber
how clumsy his attempts had been at the same time giving him an
extempore lecture on the anatomic construction of the neck, and
showing him how a successful suicide in this region should be
performed. At the close of the conversation the unfortunate
barber retired into the back area of his shop, and following
minutely the surgeon's directions, cut his throat in such a
manner that there was no hope of saving him. It is supposed that
one could commit suicide by completely gilding or varnishing the
body, thus eliminating the excretory functions of the skin. There
is an old story of an infant who was gilded to appear at a Papal
ceremony who died shortly afterward from the suppression of the
skin-function.
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