The old medical records are full of incredible stories .Some of them remain a mystery, but most, from today's perspective, it is easy to understand that really was a fraud or of an unknown disease or not considered as such at that time.One of the most curious is that of the German Catharina Geisslerin, the woman who vomited frogs.Is that possible?
Catharina Geisslerin, the woman who vomited frogs
The case of Catharina Geisslerin occurred in Germany in 1642 .The woman was known throughout the country for the particularity of throw up frogs .The popular belief was that Mrs. had drunk dirty water in which there were tadpoles and that these had become frogs in her stomach or intestinal tract.
The woman vomited whole frogs, in some cases alive , especially when she drank milk.For two years he made his exhibition before doctors and famed professors who in spite of being skeptical at the beginning ended up corroborating the facts.However, when a renowned Saxon doctor named Thomas Rheinesius decided to study the case personally, the woman stopped vomiting frogs despite all the vomit and contaminated water she gave him for three months and the same thing happened when she was studied by Professor Michaelis de Leipzig.
When the doctors marched, the woman returned to expel frogs .At that time she was called Thomas Bartholin, a famous Dutch anatomist who He was the first to describe the human lymphatic system. Bartholin dicatamino that the case was a fraud since dissecting one of the frogs vomited by Catharina found inside a lot of black flies that the amphibian could not have ingested inside the woman, but only outside.The doctor believed that the woman swallowed the whole frogs and expelled them minutes later.
Despite this opinion, in 1662, when Catharina died, the doctors threw themselves excited to perform his autopsy.Inside the body they did not find anything unusual, except for an inflammation in the liver that could have caused him death.doctors did not take into account that stomach acids had destroyed the ra nas or tadpoles of having remained in the and that, in addition, the high temperature of the human body would not have allowed the amphibians to grow and develop in it.
It is currently thought that the woman could suffer from a Pica disorder , a disease that leads to intentionally consuming non-food substances, which the He wanted to swallow frogs.When he saw that the case made her famous and received attention from so many people, she possibly continued to eat amphibians and continued with the fraud.
The case of Catharina is not the only one registered.XVII and XVIII there were several cases of people vomiting amphibians.The most notorious was that of Theodorus Doderlein who in 1694 expelled 21 newts and 4 frogs through his mouth.
What did you think of the case of Catharina Geisslerin? Have you heard about Pica's disorder? If you want to know more curious medical cases, you might want to read the post:
-Mary Toft the English girl who gave birth to nine rabbits
Image: Kevin Galens
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