The digestive fluids act so powerfully
as decomposing agents that the ordi
! nary substances are quickly dissolved
jby them. Thus most foreign bodies
that find their way into the stomach
! and cannot pass out through the intes
! final canal are soon oaten up. Accord
iingly, the notion commonly held by
ignorant people that a frog or lizard
can live and grow in a person’s
stomach is a very funny one. Nor
need anybody entertain a dread lest
a cherry tree or other vegetarian de
j velop in his inside. In cases where
dangerous objects like false teeth do
lodge in the stomach they must be got
j rid of in one of several interesting
( ways, such as fishing them.
Another interesting operation is call
ed “transulmination of the larynx.” It
is applied in cases where something is
supposed to be the matter with that
organ. An electric lamp somewhat re
sembling a dark lantern, with a power
! ful lens, is pressed against the out side
of the throat in front, directly over
the Adam’s apple. Everybody has an
Adam’s apple, which is the voice box
containing the vocal cords, though in
woman it is usally smaller and docs
not make an ugly projection. Close
against this organ from the outside
the lens of the lantern is pressed, so
that all of the concentrated light is
shed through the throat wall.
So thin is the wall that the rays
pierces it and illuminates the voice box
| within, enabling the physicain, by look
ing down the patient’s throat, to ex
amine its interior and to see if any
thing as wrong with the vocal cords.
