The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1875-04-22
A Bullet I'm the Brain.

IT is the fifth day since bullet, weigh
ing half an ounce, was lodged in the
brain of MIR. 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 so
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
| and the heart as the essential seats of
vitality; and it was great puzzle to
people when, some years ago, pistol
bullet was lodged in the heart of the
| Unknown Bill Poole, and that compar-
| atively decent brave of city politics did
not Immediately die. In Poole's case the
bullet was certainly lodged in the mus
| cular, walls of the heart, and it might
have been as safe there as in almost any
other muscle if repose and attention had
ceased the labor of the heart till careful
| nature could have reinforced the walls
and provided against accidents; but an
| enemy was permitted to enter his room
| too early-there was new alteration,
| an excitement, and, the heart being
| forced to an untimely energy, the thin
septum of muscle that kept the bullet in
| safe place was broken through, the
| function of the organ was interfered
with, and death came. 1t is just as GER
| tain in this case that Carruth's brain is
wounded-yet he lives; and people who
find that a shot in the heart or brain may
yet not be fatal will begin to mistrust
their revolvers.
1t is not impossible for man to live
with the most serious injury to the
brain, and even to live for 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 as
bullets. In the College Museum, at
Montpelier, in France, is the skull of a
soldier of the First Empire, who lived
many years with 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
ess of bone under the bullet-between it
and the brain-and reduced it to the
character of harmless neighbor. In
| the practice of DIR. Detmold, of this city
| we believe there once occurred the case
of a man who, in some blasting opera.
tions, had sort of small crowbar OF
rock drill driven through his brain-into
the head at 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 pyogenic tract. Cases nigh,
be produced in illustration to almost any
extent.
Wounds in the brain are fatal imme
diately, as rule, by the fact that they
open large arteries, or that they injure
parts essential to the performance oi
some of the absolutely necessary func
| tions, like respiration; AMI they are fata
later by leading to Inflammation. Arteries
and large veins are so ramifed in the brair
that it is scarcely possible to shoot into i
without inducing extensive hemorrhage
and the blood thus let out from the vessel
does not flow away by the wound but i
plugged in by the bullet, or by the elias
ticlty OF the jelly-like substance, and act
as the same fluid does in case of apo
plexy, by pressure and interference will
cerebral functions. But it is possible t,
put bullet without opening either an,
considerable artery or large vein, AM
without touching the parts of the brail
that preside over the operations of an
NAL life. This is, apparently, what ha
: occurred in Carruth's case. He was sho
. in the back of the head and the bulle
went upward and to the right. 1t is pei
haps lodged against the bone at the sum
: NIT of the right cerebral hemisphere
Or if it reached that point with the fore
Just short of what was necessary to per
! citrate it has passed by the inclination Q
the bone to point not far from the righ
eye.
AS the man reasons and is copsciou
the anterior portion of the hemisphere
not greatly injured, and is not much,
. at al], pressed upon by clot. 1t is no
, the eve are opened, yet the circulation o
|, the eye Ia interfered with, as is indicates
by the conditions Of the lid and BY tn