The New Hampshire Gazette And General Advertiser

The following unfortunate, tho' ultimately happy case, that lately happened to a child of four years of age, the son of Mr. Roberts, of Hammersmith, may be of use to the publick. On Thursday last, as the boy was playing upon the green at Margate, he lay upon his back, with a halfpenny in his mouth, and swallowed it. A vomit and purge were given him by a surgeon of the place, without answering the view. On his conveyance home on Sunday night, another purge was exhibited with the like consequence. The parents sent for Mr. J. Oliphant, of Addle-street for his assistance. He constructed an instrument in imitation of one used by the late Dr. Cleghorn, of Dublin, to extract a feather from the gullet. The present one was made of bent doubled wire, like the hook at the peak of female stays, only the lateral sides were more distant from each other. This hook was tied upon a piece of very flexible whalebone. On his visit on Tuesday afternoon he introduced it, and to the inexpressible pleasure of the anxious parents, himself and attendants extracted the halfpenny from upwards of three inches down the gullet, and left the child in a fair way to recover.