Weird patent: How to fish in a person's stomach?

In 1854, the United States Patent Office received an "invention" from Alpheus Myers: a new way to catch "fish" by... inside one's own stomach.

His invention is this: use a small tube, put a little food such as cheese in it, and make an insect trap. The patient strictly fasts for a week, then swallows the insect trap tied with a rope, and waits for 6 to 12 hours. According to him, the insects will be tempted by the bait and will drill their heads into the insect trap, and then the rope can be pulled out.

This patent was actually approved, with the number US11942A, and it can still be viewed today.

The tapeworm's slender body has poor mobility, and it usually uses its head to firmly fix itself in the intestinal wall, and it does not crawl around like an earthworm to find food. In addition, the strong acid environment of the stomach is fatal to parasites, so tapeworms can never be fished out of the stomach like fishing.

However, it is possible to remove tapeworms from the upper passage. In 2017, the New England Journal of Medicine reported a case in which a doctor used a colonoscope with forceps to remove the head of a tapeworm attached to the sigmoid colon, and then pulled it out of the mouth bit by bit like magic. It was 188 cm long.

The illustrations in this article are not scientific illustrations but have undergone certain artistic processing.

Comic script: Species Calendar Team

Scientific review: Species Calendar Team

Painting: Chen Pupu

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