Litchfield enquirer., 1836-09-22

Sin.gular inStGness ef Sudaen SeuA.-A eLunKen coal heaver IS related to have fallen rom wagon, been taken up and carried to St. Bartholomew's hospital. He was Strir,. ped, and the surgeon examined him, but no injury could be discovered still he said ho could not rise up in the bed. MT, Abernethv was called in, but this celebrated surgeon could make nothing of the case, and directed that he should be washed thoroughly clean and barber procured to shave him. About an hour after, a message was brought tlyat the man had instantaneously, while under. going the operation of shaving, died. The barber said he appeared to be well, and was talking to him one instant, and the next was a dead man. T had hold of him." said he. "by the nose, and did but turn his head very gently to use the razor, when he without breathing or sigh, went off," Abernethy turned to the young students, and told them thls was a case for study, saying there was cause for the mans death-thaf the follow ing morning he would open the body and find 1t out. At the same time he asked the students to think of the case, and tell him in the morning their opinions of what might be the cause. One of the students suggested that vertebral bone was fractured, and that as the barber turned his head to shave him, a splinter penetrated the spiral cord Aberne- thy immediately coincided in this opinion, and they then cut down the back, and discov- cred small piece of fractured bone, not big ger than half pin, which had penetrated the spine; taking the corpse by the nose, they observed, as they turned the head one way, the splinter came out, and as they turn ca It the contrary, it entered the vital cord.- lhe problem was now at once solved, and strlklng illustration furnished how little it taxes 10 stop the great machine of life in man. An instance even more singular occurred | Tn the case ot man who was found in a field quite dead, with hay fork or a prong bv | the side of him. He was opened, but no prob able cause ot his sudden death could be dis covered. At length one of the surgeons sent for the fork, in consequence of witness say- ing 1t was only few minutes before his death that he saw the deceased leaning on it, with | the point upward, as he was standing in the field. On the point of one prong of the fork | was discovered something like small speck, but no wound could be found upon the corpse
 The surgeon now pushed back the corner of the eye next the nose, and then declared that he had discovered the cause of the mans death, namely, that while leaning on the fork, he had slipped, and the point of it had enter ed the corner of his eye under the nose, and produced instant death. {" For," added he, i've all know that in this manner we may be killed with pin or needle, without having any external wound so as to indicate the cause" The surgeon then explained to the persons present that this peculiarly vulnera- ble part could not be reached, excepting only by the means above described-that is, put ting the instrument used sideways into the l corner of the eye, and then immediately di- rect it in straight forward manner, so as to penetrate in direction toward the brain, un- der the upper part of the usual bone. Such an operation. he said, performed with the smallest needle, produces instantaneous death.-English paper.
 A Ministers Misfortune.-A clergyman in this city received call from young lady and gentleman, belonging to neighboring town. last Sunday evening, about 10 o'clock. who politely requested him to make them "one flesh." After calling up his wife and a female friend, who had retired, to witness the ceremony, and he had received satisfac- tory evidence that his visitors were fit sub- jects, he performed the desired act, and pro- nounced the happy pair |" man and wife, This was all very well--but the last word was hardly pronounced before the wife snatched her bonnet and the husband his hat, and quicker than a dart they were safely landed in the street, hastening to their night quarters, and leaving the minister, as pay ment for services rendered, the pleasure of fastening up his doors, and coolly rejecting upon the purity of the love and honor which animated the couple just departed.
 Lo,ceH Courier.