The New Hampshire Gazette

From the Richmond Enquirer.

The following account of the fatal effects resulting from the swallowing of a cent may not be uninteresting to some of your readers.

In the year 1809 a boy belonging to Mr. R. of this county by accident swallowed a cent. He was about 4 years old. The cent passed down the esophagus, near to the bifurcation of the trachea, and lodged there until the month of Feb. in the present year, when it descended into the stomach. Until this time the cent occasioned very little inconvenience to him, except at the times of eating, when it appeared from his complaints to produce great pain and distress: and when he would run or take much exercise, his breathing became very quick and laborious. Its descent into the stomach was evinced at the above time, by his being able to eat and take exercise without pain or distress.—

Shortly after its getting into his stomach, his health began to decline, symptoms of dyspepsia came on with a great inclination to eat dirt. His countenance exhibited a bloated appearance, and his extremities swelled, he complained of great pain in his belly, and frequently vomited quantities of blood. Four days before his death he vomited coagulated blood very freely and with it the cent reduced to less than half its former size, and covered on its surfaces with a dark brown oxide,* as you will see from the cent which I will send to you.—

After this the hemorrhage from the stomach returned very violent and terminated his life. Seeing in your paper of the 11th inst. a paragraph of the London Times recommending the administration of powdered charcoal in cases when the oxides of arsenic or copper have been taken into the stomach, I am led to enquire what may be its effect in such fatal accidents as the above. Yours respectfully,

REUBEN MEREDITH.

Hanover, July 15th.

* Now deposited in the Virginia Museum.