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This case is reported, first, because the condition is apparently unique and, second, to show the importance of taking into consideration the patient's story, no matter how absurd it may seem. The lesion was an abscess of the submaxillary salivary gland of which the history was almost unbelievable until the findings proved it to be true.
The patient, a white man 28 years of age, came to the office on May 8, 1937, complaining of having had a sore throat for about two weeks and of being able to swallow only liquids. He was holding his head to one side, and he appeared to have a great deal of pain.
His history was interesting. About twelve years before he was examined, while chewing a piece of grass, he felt something stick into the soft tissue under the left side of his tongue. Since this accident there had been present more