at its upper end.
Briggs reports a case in which a wine glass was introduced into the rectum, and although removed twenty-four hours afterward, death ensued.
Hockenhull extracted 402 stones from the rectum of a boy of seven.
Landerer speaks of a curious case in which the absorptive power of the rectum was utilized in the murder of a boy of fifteen.

In order to come into the possession of a large inheritance the murderess poisoned the boy by introducing the ends of some phosphorous matches into his rectum, causing death that night; there was intense inflammation of the rectum.

The woman was speedily apprehended, and committed suicide when her crime was known.
Complete transfixion of the abdomen does not always have a fatal issue.
In fact, two older writers, Wisemann and Muys, testify that it is quite possible for a person to be transfixed without having any portion of the intestines or viscera wounded.

In some nations in olden times, the extremest degree of punishment was transfixion by a stake.

In his voyages and travels, in describing the death of the King of Demaa at the hands of his page, Mendez Pinto says that instead of being reserved for torture, as were his successors Ravaillac, and Gerard, the slayer of William the Silent, the assassin was impaled alive with a long stake which was thrust in at his fundament and came out at the nape of his neck.