The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1884-01-02
A BALLIN HIS BRAiN5.
He AsroNlsHED HIS pAysIclha3.
A Brooklyn You'll, Who Recovered Ills
Health and Faculties After the
Doctors Had Pronounced
His Case Hopeless,
[N. y. World.l

on Sunday, October 2S The shooting, he
claims, was accidental and was done while
he was handling a Smith q Wesson y
caliber revolver. The bullet passed six
inches through the middle of his brain
According to the physicians it is there yet
but Reimer has fully recovered and has re.
turned to his work in this city as sound In
mind, body and spirits as before. He was
attended by DIR. ]. Nehrbas, OF No. AL
Bedford avenue, and Dr. Scion F. Bliss, OF
No. $50 Herkimer street, until he surprised
them by getting well. The doctors make
the following statement:
"We found that the ball had entered the
middle of the right side of the head, an
inch and half above the right ear, and
that 1t took slightly downward course
six inches directly through the reasoning
faculties. The young mans pulse was at
forty-eight beats to the minute. Weprobed
for the bullet, going three inches into the
brain and finding the passage made by the
ball leading still further in. Then we
agreed to leave further probing till the
next day, and put the young man on strict
anti.phlogistic treatment to allay the In
hammation which we expected. We did
not anticipate his recovery, but confident
ly expected his death within twenty-four
hours and gave his family no hope. His
pulse rallied before evening, rising to fifty
five degrees, and very little inflammation
set in. These were favorable symptoms,
but we did not deem that there was the
least chance of his surviving. Next day
we probed again, going five inches into tho
brain, and locating the bullet an inch
further in. We judged that 1t would only
hasten death to remove 1t, and concluded
to let it stay there. Although we had no
hopes Of the young mans recovery, we
persisted in our treatment, the patients
father and mother doing the nursing. He,
Unexpectedly to us, gained every day, till
at the end Of two weeks he was compare
lively out Of danger. He Is now fully re-
covered, and has gone back TO work in as
sound health, mind and spirits as he ever
enjoyed, apparently"
A reporter Of the World called at the
house of DIR. Solon F. Bliss yesterday after
noon.
"Have you any doubt, doctor, that the
ball Is yet in young Reimer's brainp he
asked.
"None whatever" said the doctor.
SHOW do you know that 1t ever went
imp
because our probes found the aperture
made by the ball, leading away through
the membrane and tissue of the brain at
least six inches, and as the bullet did not
come out on the left side II stands to rea-
son that 1t must be there yet, and by this
time 1t has encysted."
DR.. Bliss said Reimer had three convul-
sions during the first week. The first took
place two days after the shooting; the a..
ond two days after that, and the third at
the end ~ -tlre'first week. Each was less
violent than the one that preceded IL, and
none were very violent. Only the left side
and limbs were convulsed. attribute IL
TO the pressure OF the bullet against the
nerve centers OF the left side of the brain"
"You don't anticipate any disturbance
TO his reason or health by the after conse-
quences Of the bullet woundW
81 don't"
"To what do you attribute his recov-
eryp
"To proper nursing and treatment and a
system entirely free from even hereditary
taint Of liquor"
Is not his case unique In surgeryp
"Gross mentions few cases almost
similar, but In none Of them has the bullet
traversed the direct center OF the brain
as this did. For instance, he quotes case
recorded by Drs. W. W. Keen and viii.
lam Thompson, in the Philadelphia Pho.
togrdphic Repiel1 of Medicine and Surgery
for 1871, where man who had three inches
Of the base of his skull taken of by q
bullet at the battle Of Antietam-the brain
itself being severely contused-fully re-
covered with the exception Of slight Inn
paiiment Of sight and memory. DR.. Ben
jamin Howard is also quoted as record.
ing the case of man who was struck on
the left temple by bullet, which, pass
ing under the scalp, entered the frontal
bone a little to the right of the middle
line, causing kind of a trap-door fract-
ure with a depression and aperture so
small as not 10 admit a common probe.
The bullet was buried to great depth In
the cerebrum. It was got out, he was treat
ed rigidly on anti-phlogistic principles and
recovered.
The reporter then went TO see the
Reimers. Charles came home In high
spirits and possessed Of good appetite.
The scar above his right ear is no larger
than five-cent piece. He was found TO bo
as described by the doctor and he said he
felt frstra
" That only proves the truth Of the be-
lief have always had" said DIR. Mann,
of Brooklyn, that the brain IS much
harder substance than the older physL
clans and surgeons ever suspected. II /
had cerebral abscess now should not
hesitate to call in brother physician and
tell him to trephine my skull and remove
the abscess. Iwould assume the ri k.v
Great interest has been evinced by the
Brooklyn doctors who have already heard
OF young Reimer's singular recovery.
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Rising Poets In Germany.