Alexandria gazette & daily advertiser. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1817-1822, 1818-09-14
DEATH OF COL. DANIEL BooY.*

DEATH OF COL. DANIEL BooN.*
As he lived, so he died, with his gun in
his hand. We are informed by gentle
man direct from Boon's settlement on the
Missouri, that early in las: month Colonel
Boon rode TO a deer lick, seated himself
within blind raised TO conceal him from
the game. That while sitting thus conceal
ed with his old trusty rifle in his hand,
pointed towards the lick, the muzzle rest
ing on a log, his face 10 the breach ofhis gun,
his rifle cooked, his finger 10 the trigger,
one eye shut, the other looking along the
barrel through the sights-in this position,
without struggle or motion, and OF course
without pain, he breathed out his last so
gently, that when he was found next day
by his friends, although stiff and cold, he
looked as if alive, with his gun in his hand,
just in the act Of firing. 1t is not altoge-
ther certain, if buck had come into the
range of his gun, which had been the death
of thousands, but it might have intuitively
obeyed its old employers mind and dis
charged itself. This hypothesis being no.
vel, we leave the solution to the curious.
(Chillicothe Supporter.
[* Col. Boon was the first discover of,
and settler in, Kentucky. 1t is believed he
was between 60 and 100 years old.l
The following letter cannot be read with
out great interest by our medical men and
natu:alsts.-IE. Post.
Paris, June /.
"Dear Sir-I now transmit you several
late journals and medical publications, in
which much interesting matter is offered
for philosophical enquiry. The sudden
change Of he color Of the skin from white
to black, in the person of Mary Guilard, is
truly astonishing, and invites new conjec-
lures and controversies. The reporter Of
the case to the faculty of medicine, has at
tempted to explain this phenomenon, from
a disease Ct the Liver and from bile-but
| think that neither have any thing to do
with it. have seen the woman before
she died, and it is fact, her change Of CO.
lor took place in the night after she was IN
formed of the tragical death of her chill
dren. 1t is also true that she continued 10
months in the same color, and until she d.
ed but she was observed to grow paler
half an hour only before her body was O.
pened. | hope you will not leave the sub
ject without further enquiry. Whoever
could satisfactorily account for this strange
metamorphosls, would certainly explain
or disclose the true cause Of the black
color Of the African race.
You will not be less astonished by the O.
peration for cancer, as performed by Rich
erand.-The sufferer who was surgeon
himself, had several times submitted to the
entire extirpation of his cancer in the left
breast, also to several applications Of fire
and caustic, but it always shot out anew,
and put forth more horrid excresences and
offensive discharges. No chance could be
left against an impending and cruel death,
but from the excison oftwo ribs-the pleu-
"a underneath being found much diseased,
it was also cut of on quadrilateral space
Of eight inches So uare. What terrible con-
sequences were now TO be remedied, of a-
morrage from The intercostal arteries, and
Of sunocation by the air rushing into the
lungs, any man almost can be aware OF but
they were all admirably and successfully
provided for. On the 9th day after the
operation, the patient was perfectly cured,
retaining leatherly plate on the scar, be-
ing yet tender.
Rcherand exults now for having proved
to the world, that, for very important pur-
poses, the cavity ofthe thorax may be open
ed by excision Of the ribs and Of the pleu-
"a in case of a great lesion of lobe Of
the lungs, part might be cut of-and ny.
dropericardium might be operated as an
hydrocele.
1t was discovered by this operation, that
the heart and pericardium are absolutely
insensible-the last beng so transparent,
as TO shew all the motions former, that, like
the mirror oil the eye, it becomes Opaque
only by death.