1895
The glass eaters, iron chewers and all other classes of "human ostriches" are well known to the frequenters of dime museums and side shows, but it is seldom that we see, read or hear of a man who swallows indigestibles of extraordinary size just for the novelty of the thing.
Such a man, however, was John Cummings, whose history is given in extended notices in the medical and surgical annals of Boston. He watched a French sword swallower one day and immediately after attempted a similar feat with a common table knife. The knife accidentally slipped down his throat, and a few days later, it having given him no inconvenience, he repeated the experiment. Both of these exploits took place at Havre de Grace, France.
On his return to Boston he boasted of the feat, and upon being bantered repeated the dose again and again. During the following ten years he swallowed in all 35 knives and forks, finally dying in terrible agony. He died in 1809. — St. Louis Republic.
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