The New York herald., 1875-10-28
The Case of Carruth.


Finally, after memorable struggle for
life Carruth has fallen a victim to the in
juries received at yineland, seven months
ago from pistol ball His case was first
separated from ordinary cases of this sort by
the fact that he did not die in the ordinary
way, and his apparent recovery after a short
convalescence gave scientific interest to the
tragic story. 1t may be remembered that
when this injury was received the victim was
first cared for by local practitioner Of the
homeopathic faith, who was, perhaps, his
family physician. The case was seen once
by DR.. Gross, the eminent surgeon, who gave
the wound some attention, but by the wish
of the family it fell entirely into the hands
Of the homeopathists. They deemed it well
to spare themselves the pain of further in
quiry with regard to the whereabouts of the
missile Some symptoms in the right eye
attracted their attention and apparently en-
couraged them in jumping to the conclusion
that the bullet was lodged in the immediate
vicinity Of that organ; and this opinion, not
irrational in the circumstance, was a dis
couragement to any effort at extraction. They,
therefore, gave the patient arnica. That is
to say, under the thin disguise OF giving
him about drop Of arnica on pound OF
sugar in the course Of month they left him
alone, medically speaking. As no large YES
sells were opened he throve on this treat
ment until the orifce of the wound closed,
and then the accumulating pus, pent in, ex-
cavated nearly whole lobe of the brain, in
capacitated the essential organ for its func-
tions, and necessarily caused death
DR.. Gross had found, on his examination,
within the Uranium and an inch and half
from the mouth of the wound the fragment of
bone that the bullet had forced before it in
penetrating the skull, and the post-mortem
has demonstrated that the bullet itself was in
that immediate neighborhood. 1t can scarcely
be supposed that the fact of finding this i'm
portant fragment so far within the wound
was lost on the surgeons mind. He, more
over, was aware that all that portion of the
cerebral matter which had closed up the
course of the bullet day or two later was
50 bruised that it must necessarily die,
and he would have had no hesita-
ton, therefore, in working through it with
probe and so doing, on the hint given by
that piece of bone, he would have found the
bullet. But more important consequence
would have appeared in the subsequent treat
ment Of the case. Neither he nor any other
human creature could have prevented the
molecular death of the bruised parts of the
brain; but he would have provided for the
discharge Of the results of suppuration, for
the outflow of that which, being pent in, be-
came at last the real cause of death In his
hands, therefore, the patient would have had
his final chance for life and as the patient
actually exhibited the possession of the
necessary physical stamina he would, in all
probability, have finally recovered.
The post-mortem fully accounts for the
peculiarities of the case, and confirms pre-
viously known physiological truths. AS the
course of the bullet in the brain was so short
it cut no arteries of consequence, and hence
the man did not bleed to death. Doubtless
there was meningitis but in this disorder it
is the product of Inflammation that kills, and
in the present case this product escaped by
the wound. Only the function of vision was
disturbed, and this was apparently because
the bullet touched an optic nerve above the
point of decussation. No other essential
function was affected, and this agrees with
the fact that the wound had not reached any
of the great ganglia. But though the hemi-
spheres are the seat Of thought and though
all the injury was in one of the hemispheres
the man thought clearly and as soundly, at
least, as ever One hemisphere, however, was
uniniured and thought was in one sense
embarrassed. Immediately after the injury
the man did not readily respond to inquiries
made. There was a delay of a minute or
more sometimes before he could clearly COM
prehend what was said or frame an answer.
Intellectual operations, therefore, though
performed, were performed with less facility.
There was an impediment to the co-ordina-
ton of these operations.
If there is any ordinary act that men
habitually do with two hands and they sud-
denly find one hand crippled, they can, per-
haps, do this act with the remaining hand
alone but they do it clumsily and they are
longer about it. This is only an illustration
of the kind of trouble that came over Car
ruth's mind when one-half the organ Of intel
lect was compelled to do alone what is COM
monty done by the two halves in unison, and
what the case seems to show in this regard is
that while coordination of the two hemi-
spheres is ordinarily the condition Of intel
lectual operations the independent action of
4 one is possible.
ssThe Committee on Discipline"
It is distressing to read of the perpetual