Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1875-05-06

i
IT Is the nth day since bullet, weigh
ing half an ounce. was lodged in the
brain of Mr.. Carruth, the Vincland ed.
itOr, and he Is still alive and this fact Is
! scarcely comprehensive to the MANY
who conceive the brain as in itself 80
essentially vital that any injury to it is
followed inevitably and almost immedi.
ately by death. Indeed, popular knowl-
edge Is only divided between the brain
ana the heart as the essential seats of
vitality; and 1t was q great puzzle to
people when, some years ago, a pistol
bullet was lodged in the heart of the
wellknown Bill Poole, and that compar-
atively decent brave of city politics did
not Immediately die. In Poole's case the
4 bullet was certainly lodged in the mus
cular walls Of the heart, and it might
have been rs safe there as In almost any
other muscle ii repose and attention had
ceased the labor OF the heart till careful
nature could have reinforced the walls
| and provided against accidents; but IN
enemy was permitted to enter his room
| too early-therc was new alteration,
an excitement, and, the heart being
forced to an untimely energy, the thin
septum of muscle that kept the bullet in
| a safe place was broken through, the
function of the organ was interfered
WITH and death came. 1t Is just rs GER
tain in this case that Carruth's brain is
wounded-yet he lives; and people who
find that shot in the heart or brain may
yet not be fatal will begin to mistrust
their rcvolvers.
1t is not impossible for q man TO live
with the most serious injury to the
brain, and even to live tor many years.
Every medical museum has specimens
which exhibit that life is not necessarily
cut short by the presence in the brain OF
substances presumably as injurious rs
bullets. In the College Museum, at
Montpelier, in France, Is the skull of a
soldier of the First Empire, who lived
| many years with a bullet In his brain,
and one can see plainly the evidences of
| the efforts made by nature, like skillful
engineer, to prevent interference with
her ordinary operations. Assisted, per
| haps, by some shreds Of the internal
| periosteum, she had constructed proc
ess of bone under the bullet--between it
and the brains and reduced it to the
character of harmless neighbor. In
the practice Of DR.. Detmold, Of this city,
| we believe there once occurred the case
of man who, in some blasting opera
tons, had sort of small crowbar or
| rock drill driven through his brain--into
the head Mt one side and out at the
other-and who recovered from the
wound at the time, but died subsequent
ly from its effects by the formation OF an
abscess and the exhausting drain made
by large pyogmic tract. Cases might
be produced in illustration to almost any
| extent.
Wounds in the brain are fatal imme-
diately, as a rule, by the fact that they
open large arteries, or that they injure
parts essential to the performance Of
some of the absolutely necessary func-
lions, like respiration; and they are fatal
later by leading to Inflammation. Arteries
and large veins are so ramifed in the brain
that it Is scarcely possible to shoot into ii
without inducing extensive hemorrhage
and the blood thus let out from the vessels
does not flow away by the wound but is
plugged in by the bullet, or by the elias
ITCHY 0: the jelly-like substance, and acts
as the same fluid does in case of apo
plexy, by pressure and interference with
cerebral functions. But it is possible to
put a bullet without opening either any
considerable artery or large vein, and
without touching the parts of the brain
that preside over the operations Of ami
NAL life. This is, apparently, what has
occurred in Carruths case. He was shot
in the back of the head and the bullet
went upward and to the right. 1t is per
haps lodged against the bone at the sum-
NIT of the right cerebral hemisphere.
Or if it reached that point with the force
just short of what was necessary to pen
citrate it has passed by the inclination of
the bone to u point not far from the right
eye.
AS the man reasons and is conscious
the anterior portion of the hemisphere Is
not greatly injured, and is not much, il
at all, pressed upon by clot. 1t is not
probable, therefore, that the arteries near
the eye are opened, yet the circulation OF
the eye is intcrfered with, as is indicated
by the conditions of the lid and by the
condition of the eye itself, for the optic
nerve is not injured, and the loss of sight
is due to trouble caused, perhaps, by
pressure, and it may be by pressure OF
the bullet in the immediate vicinity O.
the orbital chamber.--N. Y. Herald
The Western Deed. FOrgcrS.