Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1884-03-16


the most remarkable cases on record is
attracting attention at the Massachu-
sets General Hospital. Two weeks
ago Charles Briggs, well known
gentleman and in the prime Of life,
while driving between Millbury and
Worcester was thrown from his buggy
striking On his face and head against q
curbstoue. He remained there for
some time unconscious until picked up
and taken to the Worcester Hospital
where his chances OF recovery were con-
sidered so poor that nothing was done
for him beyond, making him as COM
Portable as possible. The next day he
was removed to the Massachusetts Gen.
eral Hospital in Boston, where it was
found that his nose was broken, his
skull broken in two places, and his jaw
bone in four places. 1t was not sup
posed that his recovery was possible,
and for the space of week no attempt
was made TO repair tie injuries except
TO stop the hemorrhage. The accident
had driven the jaw ZONE on each side
back into the skull, and III first the
broken cartilage of the nose was out OF
reach; but nature gradually pushed
them back into place, though In knit
ting, the jaw bone became irregular IN
shape, so that it became necessary to
break and reset it. The doctors now
say that the man will be able to leaTe
the hospital
Within Three week..
and that his face is not likely TO be per-
uanently disiigured. Time, it thus ap.
pears, must show whether Charles
Briggs name is to be added to the long
list OF persons who have recovered from
what are ordinarily mortal wounds.
However this case may turn, the cir
cumstances are sufficiently striking to
call to mind numberso of other incidents,
many of which are truly marvellous. Ii
il hardly six months since the people
resident in Astoria were startled by the
report that one William Scheever, a
German shoemaker Of that vicinity,
had shot himself once i'm the mouth and
once in the ear with "bull-dOg" re-
voiver, aud was dead. inquiry showed
that he was not yet dead, but had be-
come sufficiently composed to arrange
his worldly affairs by signing over his
prop, rty TO his daughter. On the next
nCrnIng he called FOR Frankfurte sau-
-aA and lager. and on tire second day
lP left his bed and walked away from
II e hospital saying that he could not
shiuk of troubling them longer. What
be did with the bullet that lodged in
bis interior is a coed deal OF problem.
With such cases in their books it is no
wonder that physicians always say,
while there is life there is hope. 1t is
easy to tell that 3 man Is dead, but it is
very seldom certain that he will die,
since there are cases of recovery on
record that no sane man would think
of predicting. For example, no person
would have supposed that the man in
Massachusetts,, whose case has been SO
often quoted, would have
Lived Twelve Years
after having tamping iron bio Hn Iii.
his Jaw and coming out through the
roof of his skull; yet he did live for that
time, and even enjoyed fairly good
physical health. IL would not occur to
any man tnat he could perform the
functions of life with q hole in the side
Of his stomach, yet fist. Martin had aOt
done that very thing, physicians agree
that comparatively little would be
known to-day Of the marvellous pro.
c1sses that go on inside the laboratory
of tbs body.
Open wounds clean through the body
itself are past belief, but not past reall.
Hation. While President Garfield lay
on his bed OF death, General Henry A.
Barnum, Of Brooklyn, wr)te letter to
The press giving an account of the
wound which he received during the
civil war. 1t remained an open aper.
lure through his body, aud has never
yet healed. For years his treatment OF
II has been simply to wear in the aper-
ture roll of prepared lint. This is re.
newed daily, and the suppuration ofthe
wound is constant, sometimes greater
and sometimes less, but never entirely
ceasing. General Shields, OF Missouri,
received a similar wound during the
| Mexican war. He wears not lint but 8
| ,iik handkerchief, which he can draw
directly through his body. Boys are
proven bially hard to kill, being proc
| against even the vicious green apple
his common toughnes5 must have
| been present to an uncommon degree
in that Paterson lad who Strolled into 8
e2rpeuttT'S shop some three OF foul
Years $50 to pick up chips and shavings
Falling backward against buzz saw
| hat was revolving with immense ra
| pGiry, he recovered his equilibrium,
walked unaided to q drug store, anC
| asked to have
HIS wound Dressed.
The only complaint he made was of s
| terrible headache, and this was not bE
| doubted when it was found that the saw
had divided his head almost in two
! This infant phenomenon did not live t
experiment with other buzz saws, bu
he did retain full consciousness fol
seven days before the end came. 1t wa;
supposedthat the saw had passed be-
| tween the two lobes of the brain, but
this point was ever settled positively, a
| the boys father refused 70 allow post
mortem examination.
| But difficult as is the fact Of recover
ing from a wound warranted to kill
there are men who have not only per-
formed the operation, but repeated il
again and again, aud seem able to repeat
| al libitum. Such cases were numerous
during the war Of the Rebellion. Can
! didates for fame in the annals of sur
gerry sprsng up on every side, men who
would no sooner arise from one bed
upon which any sane and sensible man
would have died, than they would be
Frustrated by the next bullet fired upon
another with all bsndages, the aches
and the pains to be endured again with
an identical result. The Hartford Times
not long ago published story that was
widely copied, of q man whose history
was told by himself to correspondent
in Michigan, and whose personal ap-
pearauce, so the correspondent said,
bore out his story. He was perfect
Achilles of q man, but Achilles with his
heel dipped. His troubles began at the
tender age offive, when he feel through
the roof Of shed breaking all his ribs,
both collar bones, breast bone, his right
arm in two places, his left arm above
the elbow and the bones OF his left hand.
Ii was thought that he could not recoy-
er, but he lived to afford striking ex-
L e