I quickly scanned through the first two-thirds of this Peculiar Discovery in a Boys Stomach tale from Boston in 1896… hmmm, kid, unhealthy diet, unexpected death…. no surprise….
Then came WHAT THE…??!! and I went back to read it properly.
Warwick Examiner and Times 2 May 1896 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article82149067
A diet heavy on butter creating a five-inch cow grazing deep in the pit of a child’s stomach?
Do you think there is any way the suggested terrors of this cautionary tale would change the behaviour of a small child?
Ok, I’m sure that there are a few children out there who would have nightmares about the tappy-tap of tiny internal hooves, and only being able to communicate in moooo, who will be sure to eat dry toast for the rest of their lives.
Nevertheless, if I was to tell my boys to take it easy on the butter otherwise they might end up with a miniature pet cow in their stomach their little eyes would light up!
Well, they would probably roll their eyes and say “Mu-uu-um” but, you know, if they lived in a less informed time, like 1896, I’m sure they would believe me. 😉
I wonder who the gluttonous child was that this article was directed at? The greedy sprog of an editor who had tried everything else and failed to slow the chomping? This is really something all parents would like to have access to isn’t it? The spreading of your own myth to control the children. I wonder if it worked?
I love the little additional detail of the spring of water helpfully supplied by a hole in a liver duct. I guess even imaginary stomach cows have to drink… Ewwww…
Buried words and Bushwa. 
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