On Saturday, March 28, 1896, as I returned to the city after an absence of two days, I found Elisha L. Gates, a man of 66 years, impatiently awaiting me, and complaining of a difficulty in swallowing and of a severe pain in the neck.
I elicited from his attendant the following history of the trouble: On the previous Monday evening, while eating his dinner, his tooth-plate, which was an upper one, slipped into his throat and passed down into his esophagus. At the time, he choked but little and coughed only two or three times. He stated to those present that he had swallowed his plate, and in evidence called attention to a lump in his neck. The family physician was called soon after, but found no lump in his neck other than the pomum Adami, and as he could swallow liquids without difficulty and complained of no pain