Numerous cases have been reported in which foreign bodies have been found in the heart at autopsy. In the vast majority of instances entrance to the heart was gained directly through the chest wall. The following case is of especial interest, therefore, as one in which the foreign body reached the heart by way of the venous system, access to the latter having been gained from the digestive tract:
CASE REPORT
History.
—D. H., male aged 49, entered St. Luke's Hospital, in the service of Dr. Austin W. Hollis, May 17, 1912, complaining of nausea, fever and muscular pain. Two weeks before entrance, following a spree of five days' duration, the patient had been seized with nausea and vomiting, everything taken by mouth being immediately expelled. The vomitus consisted of food just taken, and the patient had never noticed that it contained either blood or bile. His condition remained much