The Portland daily press., 1881-07-11
WHERE IS THE BULLET,
Interesting speculations Of surgeo,

Interesting Speculations Of Surgeons.
WASHINGTON, July 9.-The fact that the
seventh day has passed and that more radically
dangerous symptoms have not appeared has
renewed the interest in the probable location
of the bullet. Some of the doctors are Begin
ming to think that it may not have penetrated
so far into the ventfal cavity as has been sup
posed and feared, but that the ball, owing to
the fact that it struc kthe tenth rib, was de-
Elected, and either pursued directly down
ward course below the liver, OF passed around,
maintain that if it had torn the interior lis.
sues, and SO badly mutilated the liver as it is
maintained by some, that more marked symp-
toms OF such damage would now be apparent
New YORK, July 9.-Dr. Faneuil d.
Weisse, professor of practical and surgical
anatomy in the medical department in the
University OF the City of New York, in COM
pany with Drs, Hamilton, Shrady and others,
recently experimental upon three cadavers
each as near the size and weight of the Presi-
dent as could be had, with view of ascer-
tanning the probable course of the bullet in the
Presidents body. DR.. Weisse discharged a
revolver, carrying cartridge the same size as
the one used by Guiteau, several times at the
cadavers, and found that. whenever the ball
struck bone, it did not 60 through the bone,
but, when it did not hit bone, it always went
through. When the ball struck it would be
detected. The bullet is said to have entered
the median line of the back, striking the 18th
rib This is a movable rib, and the effect of
striking it was to diminish the force of the
missile, as well as to defect it. DIR. Weisse,
from his experiments, is convinced that the as
sassin's bullet did not penetrate the Presidents
liver. "The pains of which the President
complained in his legs and feet" said the doc
tor to reporter, "were undoubtedly caused
by an injury to sthe sciatic nerve. In brief,
the ball. striking the 18th rib, was DETECTED
downward. 1t may or it may not have
opened the lower portion of the Dleura. 1t
reached the anterior surface of the quadratus
lumbarum muscle, tracked through the fat on
its surface without wouuding the' peritoneum,
wounded the lilo hypogasctric and lilo in
guinal nerves distributing to the skin of the
scrotum. Hence the pain and soreness of the
skin of the scrotrm. Continuing on its course.
ternum muscle, passing through the substance
OF or below the psoas magnus muscle and
lodged upon the lumbosaeral cord of the
sacrul plexus, or even beyond that cord upon
the sacral plexus. That leash of nerves forms
the contributing nerve trunks, which in turn
lower abdominal cavity, passing down the
back of the thigh, distributing to the muscles
of the leg and foot; hence the immediate pain
in the Presidents right leg and foot and the
tingling, the cramps, the subsequent soreness
and numbness which were due to the pressure
of the ball. The bullet probably remains
there, pressing upon this origin of the sciatie
nerve. Therefore, the sensitiveness of the pa
TENTS lower extremities continues. The i'm
mediate fall of the President when wounded,
together with the occurrence of vomiting, are
symptoms of injury to the nerves. am salts
field that the bullet can be felt. A finger in
simulated in the dissected body upon the sacral
plexus can be felt by another finger inserted
into the rectum, and the bullet in the Presi-
dents body is undoubtedly on the sacral plex-
u.s."