Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-12-09
LIFE AND DEATH.
WHAT INJURIES A MAN MAY RE-
CsTvE AND LIVE.

duo L4f6.
some Remarkable Cases on Record of
Severe Wounds and sstonish-
ing Recoveries.
Recently the people resident in Astoria
were startled by the report (swo reports, in
fact), that one William Scheever, German
shoemaker of that vicinity. had shot him
self once in the mouth and once in the ear
with bulldog revolver, and was dead.
Inquiry showed that he was not yet dead,
but the physician hastily summoned said
he must speedily die, as he had two bullets
in his brain. He was brought to New
York and placed for treatment in the
Roosevelt Hospital, and after few hours
was sufficiently composed to arrange for his
coming death by signing over all his prop
erty to his daughter. He then went to
s'eep, and on the next day asked for some
Frankfurter sausage and lager, saying that
he was hungry. TIE next day he said he
was very sorry and walked away from the
hospital, apparently in pretty good condi-
ton. One bullet was found to have
glanced off outside his head, but there is
doubt as to where the other
one is /" It may be in his brain, it may be
lodged in one of the nasal bones, or he may
have swallowed it, )" said the physician who
attended him in the hospital. Time, it
thus appears, may or may not show
whether William Scheever's name is to be
added to the long list OF persons who have
recovered from what are ordinarily mortal
wounds.
OTHER CASES.
Whatever the truth NAV be in this case,
the circumstances are sufficiently striking
to recall the other cases, many of which
are truly marvellous. 1t Is easy to tell
that man is dead, but it is very sell
dom certain that he will die, since there
are cases of recovery that no sane man
would think of predicting. For example,
no person would have supposed for a mo-
ment that the man in Massachusetts, whose
case has SO often been quoted would have
lived twelve years after having a lamp
ing, iron blown directly through his head,
entering under his jaw and coming out
through the roof o. his skull yet he did
live for that time, and even enjoyed good
health. And it would not occur to any
ordinary man that he could live long with
a hole in the side of his stomach, yet if
st. Martin had not done that very same
thing the physicians agree that compare
lively little would be known to-day of
the marvellous processes that 90 on inside
the laboratory of the body. On the other
hand, one who is accustomed to seeing
the enormous strains and shocks the hu.
man frame withstands, is often surprised
at seeing how little thing will ''loose
the silver cord"
SMALL THINGS KILL.
A man steps on bit of orange peel, or
his friend sportively pulls away his chair,
with the idiotic idea that he is joking, and
the victim sits down too far, fractures his
spine, and is picked up dead. A strong
man scratches his finger, and dies of lock-
Jaw. A large man, bending sideways in
his chair, trying to button his shoes, loses
his balance, rolls over on a carpeted floor
and breaks his arm. Gapgrene sets in and
he dies. Such cases are on record, and 90
to show how slight the real hold on life Is.
Yet slight as is the tenure by which men
stay in this world, there are innumerable
cases on record far more marvellous than
that of William Scheever, even supposing
that he has bullet or even two in his
brain. The inevitable death that was for
merly supposed to attend upon any serious
accident to the main organs of the body
does not always come. Men live not only
with bullets in their brain, holes in their
stomach, dislocated spines, and actual
wounds in the heart itself, but even with
open wounds clear through the body itself.
General Henry A. Barnum, of BROOKLYN,
wrote while President Garfield lay dying q
letter to the press in which he told of his
own wound which he received in battle
during the civil war. 1t remained an open
aperture through his body and has never
healed, and for years his treatment of it
has been simply to wear in the hole roll
of prepared lint. This is renewed daily,
and the suppuration of the wound is con-
slant, sometimes greater and sometimes
less, but never entirely ceasing.
GENERAL SHIELDS CASE.
General Shields, of Missouri, has a SINH.
lar wound extending through his body and
open in front and behind. His wound, it
is said, was received in the Mexican war,
and he wears, not lint, but silk handker-
chief in it. This he can draw directly
through his body. Some three or four
years ago boy in Paterson, n. j., picking
up shavings in a carpenters shop, fell
backward against buzz-saw that was re-
volving with immense rapidity. Recover
ing his equilibrium he walked unaided to
drug store near by and asked to have his
wound dressed. He complained of having
a terrible headache, and this was not
doubted when it was found on examination
that the saw had divided his head almost
in two. One end of the cut was half. way
between the forehead and the crown Of the
head, and the other end was Just at the
base Of the skull. A right line from one
end to the other would have passed almost
through the middle of the head, but the
saw was a small one, and its outside edge
had beyond q question cut far beyond such
a right line. Yet the boy lived several
days, and retained his consciousness to the
time of his death. II was supposed that
the saw had passed between the two Iobes
of the brain, but that point was never set
tied positively, as the boys father refused
to allow post-mortem examination.
BULLET VS.. BRAIN.
In reporting this case the writer learned
of two men, both living in Paterson at the
time, each of whom had carried bullet in
his brain for a number Of years. One of
them had been ehot in the eye, and the
physician who attended him declared that
the bullet was beyond doubt lodged
against the skull at the back OF the head.
Both these men enjoyed good health. A
fracture of the skull Is generally supposed
to be fatal injury, and generally proves
so, yet there are not lacking cases where
death has not ensued, at least for a long
time, In the Gutermuth case it will be re-
membered that the victims skull was badly
fractured, and yet he was supposed to be
recovering a week after the injury was re-
ceived, and was well enough to walk out
aud pay visitor at least supposed him
self to be. Other cases could be cited of
similar nature if it were desirable to make