HEREDITARY NEEDLES.

1895

A Case That May Arouse Some Apprehension In the Rearing of Families.

Needles have never been supposed to be hereditary, but a recent case reported by a physician of eminence offers undoubted evidence to the contrary. A lady accidentally ran a needle into her foot 80 years ago, and it lay apparently dormant in her system for so many years that its existence was almost forgotten.

In 1878 she was married, and a year after the birth of her infant daughter the needle made its appearance in the infant's shoulder. There could be no doubt that it was the original needle by which the mother had been attacked in 1860, for it was of a peculiar and now obsolete pattern, and the mother distinctly remembered that needles of that pattern were in use at the time of her attack.

There could be no doubt that the infant inherited the needle from her mother, and that henceforth physicians will expect to find a natural tendency to needles in the tissues.

As it is asserted that people have died from needles, although there are very few such cases on record, the insurance companies will doubtless add to the questions which they put to candidates for insurance, "Did your father or mother ever swallow needles, and, if so, how many, and Of what kind — sewing, darning or carpet?" — Spare Moments.