The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1873-04-05

a Paris letter to the World contains the
| following:
1t was at LEIPZIG that the experiment was
| performed. a soldier who had murdered the
colonel of his regiment in cold blood, and
whom the severity Of Prussian discipline
would have caused to die a hundred deaths
had it been possible, was deliberately handed
over to the surgeons by sentence of court
martial, and was confined in strong room
| in the military hospital, entirely in the dark
as to the fate that awaited him. He was kept
there ready for an emergency, which did not
| fail to occur. \ keeper of beer cellar in
| LEIPZIG, a man resembling in many respects
the condemned soldier, and who had been
seized with inflammation of the heart, or rath-
cr Of It's investing membrane, was brought
to the hospital to die of that incurable and
promptly fatal malady No sooner had the
anticipated death taken place than the dead
saloon keeper was placed on table by the
side OF another operating table, on which
was the chlorotormcd but living body of the
soldier Two surgeons with assistants, pro
cecded alike in both places to divide the
scalp over the summit of the skull from ear
to ear turn back the divisions, and remove the
skullcap by inCiSionS passing round the
skull like crown. In the soldier, whose
carotid arteries had been prepared for COM
pressed, these vessels were clamped so as to
prevent hcmorrhagc, and but few drops of
blood were lost during the entire operation.
In each the duramater was incised, and the
hemispheres Of the brain were removed by
an incisiOn with sharp, thin.bladed knife
passing above the cerebellum, or narrow
portion of about two inches in diameter called
the crura cerebri
The brain of the salOonkeeper was sound.
81, iii Ian, laft Il int, 4,
ing been sensible to the last. 1t was trans.
terred to the skull of the soldier, and by an
ingenious contriyance fully detailed in the
G0-dte, the continuity Of the arterial and
venous tubes was established. The greatest
care was taken in securing the natural adap-
tation OF the parts to a fraction of a line, and
the skull having been replaced simply, was
held down and in position by the scalp, which
was drawn over and its edges confined by |
strips of adhesive plaster, and over all was
placed bandage. 1t was not until several
days had passed that the pressure upon the |
carotid arteries was entirely relaxed, although |
before the skull was replaced the flow of
blood in the vessels of the brain was proved |
to be restored. The chief fear was from the |
results of Inflammation and suppuration, but
fortunately neither cnsued, and the wound
healed kindly. There was from the first no
difficulty in feeding the patient, nor was diff. |
Guilty anticipated, for it is well known that in |
the puppies and kittens from which the en-
tire brain has been removed sucking and |
swallowing 90 on as well as before the ope-
ration, and in this case the nerves which pre-
side over deglutition and digestion were far
below the point of section.
The patient remained in a sound sleep for
two weeks, as in case of apopleXy, the cir
culation, digestion, and all the vegetable .
functions of life being uninterrupted. The
gradual union of the part was shown by faint
but gradually increasing movements of the
limbs, of the jaws, and of the muscles of eX-
preston in the face. Speech did not become
possible until the close Of the third week. and
then it was hesitating, stammering like
child learning. Although it was evident that
the patient tried to utter words and sentences,
it was very gradually that the power of intel.
ligible articulation returned
The Gazette contains the report in tabular
form of the increasing voluntary over the
arms and hands, as measured from day to day,
the measurment given in kilogrammes; also
the daily temperature of the limbs, us shown
by the thermometer in degrees of centigrade
also the measure of returning sensibility of
the fingers and lips, as given by an instru
ment called an 9sthesiOmeter; but | omit
.utSt, dS SOuI VIII DS III ulc
main facts only.
When speech became ineligible it was
found that the soldier, as he seemed had for
gotten entirely his military training and dis
,ipine; on the other hand, he told, at for
nal examination, in the presence of a number
If witnesses, the prices of all the wines and
peers, such as the saloon keeper had been in
he habit of buying and selling, manifesting
he unimpaired cerebal activity Of the latter.
His memory recalled the saloon-keeper's rela-
ives, friends and customers, whom he called
~ name. The soldier had been ugly, tact
urn, revengeful; he now had the saloon
keepers frankness and even garrulity in spite
If his stammering utterance. He was totally
blind. Although the nerves Of his smell and
light had been Appropriated in the operation,
hey failed to unite. 1t was both sad and
TRANCE to see and hear the soldier cropping in
lis infirmity of blindness, and giving proof
# all the patient endurance and goodness of
Ieart which had made the saloOn-keeper de.
prypdly esteemed and nrosnerouS