Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1888-02-16
THE MEDICAL MUSEUM.
SOME OF THE CHASTITY RELICS
KEPT ON EXHIBITION.

Curiosities of the Government Collection
at Neutrality-suspicious. of Rifle Balls.
"reminiscences of Indian Wars-Sections
of Bones-Gen. Sickles' Leg.
But the museum abounds in things that
are of intrinsic interest There are object
lessons illustrating the wonderful freaks of
rifle balls. One of these is section of a
skull with the ball which struck it split in
two, one-half going inside and infiicting the
wound which caused death, the other half
remaining on the outside between the scalp
and the skull The soldier who received this
remarkable wound at Spottsylvania lived
twenty-three days.
Still more wonderful than this case is one
where mimic ball struck the soft bone of
the nose and divided. Along with this goes
the head of the man who put the muzzle of
pistol in his mouth and fired The ball
passed through the jugular vein and stuck
fast in the bone, acting as stopper ON
hemorrhage from the vein. The would be
suicide lived seventeen years before yielding
up his head to make museum visitors marvel.
INDIAN BABIES.
The museum possesses quite a collection of
papooses, picked up by the army surgeons in
the wild west and forwarded. The withered
and battered remains have been "curedn by
long exposure to sun and wind on the ele-
waited stages where the Indians used to bury,
but they are not pleasant to look upon. The
most notable of these papooses is little
chap said to have been found in tree near
Laramie. He is dressed in a suit of blue,
upon which tie Indian mother has sewed a
great collection of buttons. Around the neck
is string of beads, and on the feet are little
embroidered moccasins.
"reminiscences of the Indian wars are nu-
merous. There is the skull of one brave who
only succumbed when he had been sabered
nine times. At least that must be the con-
clusion, for the Uranium shows nine distinct
penetrating cuts from the sword. OF course
it is not to be supposed that the white man
amused himself by whacking away need
lessly at the red mans head after the latter
was hors de combat. The skull belonged to
an Araucanian, who was killed by Chilian
soldiers. The skull of the favorite squaw of
Little Bear, the Indian chief, is very good
companion piece to the above. She was
killed in Wyoming. In the preserved era
mum are seven bullet holes
One day after the war closed there came to
Washington a one armed veteran. He had
bundle wrapped in paper, and he said it was
something that ought to be in the museum.
When the wrappings were taken off there
was brought to view a human arm. The
muscles had dried hard and the skin had been
tanned by the action of the wind and sun. So
complete had been natures process that there
was nothing disagreeable but the looks of the
arm. The drying and shrinking of the flesh
had left the jagged bone bare at one end,
and the same causes had clinched the fingerv
at the other. The veterans story was that
in the battle at Gettysburg cannon ball had
taken off his arm. Unconscious, he had been
carried to the field hospital, and then to the
general hospital Months afterward he had
regained his health and had been discharged
Curiosity prompted him to visit the battle
field and live over his terrible experience
He found, after some trouble, the spot where
he stood when the cannon ball discovered
him. 1t was in a corn field, and there be-
tween the burrows was the arm in the well
preserved condition apparent. The scientific
gentlemen of the museum didn't think it
worth while to take the soldiers affidavit
They saw at a glance that the arm was an
interesting specimen, aside from its history.
They took it, mounted it upon two supports
q
nence in the museum.
WONDERFUL WORK WITH ARROWS.
Some Of the wonderful accomplishments is Of
the Indians with their arrows are illustrated
in very realistic manner. These arrows
had heads made of the iron hoops of barrels.
A shoulder blade Of a buffalo, with the thin,
frail looking arrow head piercing it is shown.
Upon close examination the visitor discovers
that the point projects through the outer side
Of the bone. The only explanation is that
the arrow must have passed through the
body of the buffalo and struck the shoulder
blade on the inside. These arrow heads may
be taken between the fingers and bent with
ease, they are SO thin; but shot from the bow
by the Inc ian, they went through obstacles
which would have stopped bullet. They
penetrated bones without fracturing them,
and they made cuts as clean as the keenest
surgical blades. The Apache arrow head Of
soft iron has pierced where leaden project
lie would have flattened.
The visitor sees hung up in the cases here
and there sections of bones which possess no
significance until It is learned that they have
been taken from the arms or legs of men still
living. In cases where balls had shattered
the bone, surgeons sometimes preferred the
operation of cutting out section instead Of
adopting the shorter and, for them, easier
method of amputation. One Of these
excised bones hung up in the. museum
came from the arm of a veteran who
was for years an attache of the institu-
ton. He used to walk up to the case occa-
sionally and shake his fist at it. Muscle and
sinews had developed in place of the missing
bone to such an extent as to make the arm
strong enough for more than ordinary use.
This man could lift 200 pounds with the arm
from which the bone had been taken.
Pension Commissioner Black had one of his
arms excised, and there is a considerable por-
ton of it which is only gristle and muscle.
The bone is gone, and he becomes painfully
aware of the fact when he tries tc shake
hands with 400 or 500 people.
No. 1885 is large bone with the splinter
ing about midway, where the bullet struck.
The tag says: "Maj. Gen. d. E. s., United
States volunteers, Gettysburg July 2; ampu-
tated in the lower third of the thigh by Sur
geon I. Sim, United States volunteers, on the
field. Stump healed rapidly, and subject
was able to ride in carriage July To-; conf
pletely healed, SO that he mounted his horse,
in September, 1868. Contributed by the SUBJ
ject" 1t is the leg of Gen. Sickles, who is
still cheerfully stumping about New York
and Washington. -"W. B. s." in Globe
Democrat.