Omaha daily bee., 1893-12-04
ASK your grocer for Domestic soap.
DIED A pAISLEss DEATH.
Extraordinary Case OF a Railroad Man Who
nld Both Legs cut on.

extraordinary Case OF y RAILROAD mnG VINO
uid Both Legs Cut on.
One Of the most marvellous stories in the
entire range of medical literature has just
come to light in the case OF Mrs. Ellen Mol
10y of San Francisco against the Southern
Pacific Railroad company for S5O,oO0 dam
ages, which she claims by reason Of the neg
ligent killing OF her husband two years
ago in q railroad wreck, wherein a train of
cars ran over his thighs ana almost severed
both legs midway above the knees and the
hip-ioiats. Testimony from medical men
and nurses will establish a fact which con-
tradicted nearly all the experiences OF man
kind. John w. Molloy's sudden taking OF
BY being run over by a heavy freight tram,
which jumped the track aud struck him at a
distance of thirty feet from the rails, was
painless. though he lived for five hours after
the train crushed and mangled him.
II is 4 story OF death without pain under
circumstances unknown in previous cases
OF q similar character. of mutllation with
out feeling, OF the amputation of both
legs without shock or pain in
and death without suffering or loss of con-
seriousness until just the moment before life
was extinguished. Medical men say such a
case probably never occurred before in the
history of the world. The petition in the
case recites that John w. Molloy was on his
way TO the California sugar refinery, where
he was employed as a cooper on August IL,
1881. and that when he was at the side of
the railroad track, between the bridge and
the Po.rero, Il heavy freight train left the
track and ran over his legs above the knees.
and that they were a few hours thereafter
amputated BY DIR. X. +. Williams at the re-
ceiving hospital.
Tn doctor who amputated Molloy's legs
said 10 an Examiner reporter: "Molloy did
not suffer from the terrible accident, which
resulted in his death. lie told me he felt no
pain from being struck and run over by the
train ana that he did not safer thereafter
from the effects of the frightful shock.
When | saw him he was not in any apparent
misery. thought his crushed legs We're hang.
ing in a mangled condition and the blood was
fast ebbing from his veins. His friends
asked whether he was so badly hurt that his
legs would be lost, and he answered them
with the serenity of a man smoking a cigar
strokes of the knife would settle the leg
question with him forever. l then
proposed to arputate his legs,
and he watched me put the
instruments in the antiseptic bath. He
said he supposed if he didn't feel a train Of
cars he wouldn't feel a little thing like q
knife, and on making an examination | dis
covered that he was still wholly insensiolt
TO pain. There was, therefore, nc occasion
to give him chloroforrn, and | arnputated hi:
legs while he watched me. He knew some
thing was pressing against his legs when
the knife went in, but there was no pain
He watched the knife go through TIT
muscles and nerves with as much in
difference as if / had been cutting int
a beefsteak. A few hours later he diet
from the effects of the shock. There is NJ
theory for the ecceutricitles of the case. Al
we know or all we can say is that the pecul
lar lnsensibility to pain he exhibited in som
way arose from the nervous shock. In som
manner the injury paralyzed the selsor.
nerves and left the nerves of motion intact
for he could talk all right and move himsel
readily. Such a case Of frozen nerves nigh
not occur again in ages