A visitor who was stopping at a hotel was much disturbed by the snoring
of one of his friends sleeping in an adjoining room. Suddenly the snore
ceased and death-like stillness oppressed the listener. Thinking that
something had happened to his friend, he went into his room, and found
him sitting up in bed. The friend said, “I was sleeping with my mouth
open, and I think I have swallowed a mouse.”
The hotel doctor was sent for, who adopted the novel expedient of calling
in the services of the hotel cat, and placed a piece of toasted cheese
some little distance from the patient’s mouth, thinking that the mouse,
smelling the cheese, would come out to eat it and would fall a prey to
the cat. While the remedy was working, the doctor went downstairs to get
a drink, and the patient fell asleep and resumed his snoring.
When the doctor returned the cat was missing.
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