Key Object Page

Sole Fish

This sole fish represents a very unusual case. A fisherman drawing his net with both hands grabbed the fish in his mouth as it tried to escape. The fish then accidentally forced itself into the fisherman's throat and he suffocated before it could be removed. During the post-mortem the head of the sole was found near the stomach, with its teeth fastened to the wall of the oesophagus - or gullet. The case was described in Alexander Monro tertius Morbid Anatomy of the Human Gullet, Stomach and Intestines, published in 1813.