[The following was published in a Parisian medical journal in 1827.]
A boy, an apprentice of a cooper, came to the Hôtel-Dieu: from his groans, his swollen red features, his painful gait, the way he leaned while walking, stamped his feet and clutched at his genitals, one could see that he was in a great deal of pain, and that the cause of this pain was probably the urinary tract. While hastily taking off his underwear he managed to stammer that he was suffering from retention of urine, and then produced a penis which was purple, enormously swollen, and divided in the middle by a deep furrow. On separating the folds of skin which formed the edges of this depression, M. Dupuytren discovered a yellow metallic foreign body; he parted the skin further and recognized, to his amazement, the socket of a candlestick, the wider end of which was facing forward, that is to say towards the pubis.
”Socket” is perhaps not the best translation for the original French word bobèche, which is a sort of ring or collar around the outside of a candlestick, intended to catch drips of hot wax.
[…]
The torments of the patient were terrible. He had not urinated for three days; his bladder was greatly distended and extended right up to the navel; the penis was threatened by imminent gangrene. It was essential to remove the cause of this strangulation and the retention of urine without delay. While the instruments for the operation were being prepared, the patient, who had been pressed with questions, confessed that during a debauched and drunken game he had taken the socket of his candlestick for something else, and stuck his penis in it.
[…]
M. Dupuytren first cut the wide end of the socket at two opposite points; then with considerable difficulty, because of the swelling of the parts, separated it into to portions by extending his incision. An assistant was then able to insert the smaller ends of the two spatulas between the edges of the divided cylinder, which soon yielded to the efforts of the surgeon and his aide, and separated into two parts which immediately liberated the penis.
[…]
M. Dupuytren learned that the strangulation had been successfully relieved when a jet of urine was projected against him.
[…]
The patient, who was simultaneously ashamed and delighted, immediately ran off without bothering to put on his undergarments, and as he passed through the crowd he left on them – and on the square in front of Notre Dame – abundant liquid proofs of the success of the operation, which had at once removed the torments he had endured from retention of urine, as well as the danger of gangrene and even death.
Source:
Morris, Thomas. “Unfortunate Predicaments.” The Mystery of the Exploding Teeth: and Other Curiosities from the History of Medicine. Dutton, An Imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, 2018. 16-18. Print.
Original Source Listed:
M. Marx, “Chirurgie Clinique de l’Hôtel-Dieu,” Réportoire Général d’Anotomie et de Physiologie Pathologiques, et de Clinique Chirurgicale 3 (1827), 108-109.
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lol quality content. And amusing.