A study called Account of a Man Who Lived Ten Years After Having Swallowed a Number of Clasp-Knives, with a Description of the Appearances of the Body After Death, published in 1823, has an accurate title. But in a sense, it is misnamed. The author could, with just as much accuracy, have chosen to call it Account of a Man Who Died Ten Years After Having Swallowed a Number of Clasp-Knives.
The author, Dr Alex Marcet, was a London physician. This monograph is his most enduring legacy to scholars, doctors, and perhaps also to pocket-knife manufacturers. Dr Marcet called it “a most striking illustration of the self-preserving powers of the stomach and intestines”.
The hero – or at least the central figure – of the story is John Cummings, an American sailor who died in 1809 in Guy’s Hospital under the care of Dr Marcet’s colleague…
So begins this week’s Improbable Research column in The Guardian.