He then lay down on his bed, dressed in his best clothes, expecting that as soon as the two explosive materials came into contact he would burst like a bomb and his troubles would be over.

Instead of the anticipated result the most violent collicky pains ensued, which finally became so great that he had to summon his neighbors, who took him to the hospital, where, after vigorous application with the stomach-pump, it was hoped that his life would be saved.

Sankey mentions an epileptic who was found dead in his bed in the Oxford County Asylum; the man had accomplished his end by placing a round pebble in each nostril, and thoroughly impacting in his throat a strip of flannel done up in a roll.

In his "Institutes of Surgery" Sir Charles Bell remarks that his predecessor at the Middlesex Hospital entered into a conversation with his barber over an attempt at suicide in the neighborhood, during which the surgeon called the "would-be suicide" a fool, explaining to the barber how clumsy his attempts had been at the same time giving him an extempore lecture on the anatomic construction of the neck, and showing him how a successful suicide in this region should be performed.

At the close of the conversation the unfortunate barber retired into the back area of his shop, and following minutely the surgeon's directions, cut his throat in such a manner that there was no hope of saving him.