The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1868-07-04
Miscellanp.
A Wonderful Skull.

Nearly twenty wears ago the medical journals
of the world recorded most singular case of a
lsbsrer in Cavendish, VT, who while engaged in
blasting had a tamping iron blown entirely
through his head, but who actually recovered
within sixty days. Such a surprising and un.
precedented result at the time of its announce
ment was generally disbelieved, and provoked
great discussion, many eminent surgeons pro-
nouncing it a physical impossibility, but the
subsequent public exhibition Of the individual
himself convinced the most skeptical and veri.
fed the first report of DR.. John NJ. Harlow, the
attending surgeon, who published the case. At
a very recent meeting of the Massachusetts
Medical Society this gentleman read q paper
giving history of the case, and presented to
that body the veritable skull which sustained
the injury. ,
The accident occurred on September 18th,
1S4S, and was caused by the tamping iron strlk-
ing fire from the rock, exploding the powder and
driving the bar, which was nearly four feet long
by one and one-qnarter inches diameter and
weighed thirteen pounds, through his head :;
entering under the cheek bone, passing inside
an inch behind the eye and out of the top of the
head in the center, two inches back of the line
where the forehead and hair meet. The opening
in the skull was two inches wide by three and
one-half inches long, and the BRAIN was hanging
in shreds on the hair. In ffty-nine days the
patient was abroad. Soon after, with his tamp-
ing iron-which he carried with him until the
day of his death-he was exhibited in Barpum's
old museum, this city, and several years after he
left the city for South America. His general
health appears to have been good until 1859,
when it began to fail. At that time, being in
California, he was taken with epileptic fits,
which finally caused his death, in May 1861,
twelve years and eight months after the acct
dent. DIR. Harlow kept himself informed as to
the history of his patient, and his demise, OBJ
tanning possession of both the skull and the iron,
made the disposal Of the same as mentioned
above. ,i.' FEt"
The effect of the injury upon the man seems
to have been the destruction of the equilibrium
between his intellectual faculties and the animal
propensities He became capricious fitful, ir.
reverent, vacillatine, impatient of restraint, a
child in mind, an adult in physical system and
passions During his South American life he
was coachman, and underwent great hardship.
1t appears the man could see out of his left eve,
though the lid was not subject to his will. In
summing up his paper, Dr. Harlow presented
these'views
LIST, The recovery is attributed solely to the
Wis vitae, Wis conservative, or, if some like it, Wis
medcatrix nature I'd, This case has been
cited as one of recovery; physically the recovery
was nearly or quite completed for the four years
Immediately succeeding the injury but ulti-
mately the patient succumbed to progressive
disease of the brain. Mentally the recovery was
only partial; there was no dementia; intellect
ual operations were perfect in kind, but not in
degree or quantity. Sd, Though the case may
seem improbable, yet the subject was the, lman
for the case, as his WILL physique, and capacity
for endurance could scarcely be equaled; the
missile was smooth and pointed, dilating and
wedging off rather than decorating the tissues
the bolt did little injury until it entered the
base Of the brain, and that opening served as a
drain for the blood and matter and other SUBJ
stances that might have caused death by com.
preston; the part of the brain traversed was
the part that could best stand such a shock with
the least in jury.