Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1894-03-22
DIED "A PAINLESS DEATH
Extraordinary Case of Railroad!
Man Who Had Roth Legs Cut OK.

Extraordinary Case of u railroad
One Of the most marvellous stories in
the entire range Of medical literature
has just come to light in the case OF
Mrs. Ellen Molloy of San Francisco
against the Southern Pacific Railroad
company for $4,000 damages, which
She claims by reason of the negligent
killing of her husband two years ago
In Il railroad wreck wherein train Of
cars ran over his thighs and almost
severed both legs midway above the
knees and the hip joints. Testimony
from medical men and nurses will es-
tablish fact which contradicts nearly
all the experiences Of mankind. John
VI. Molloys sudden taking off by being
r., over by Il heavy freight train,
which jumped the track and struck him
lat distance Of thirty feet from the
rails, was painless. though he lived for
five hours after the train crushed and
mangled him. 1t is story of death
without pain under circumstances I'M
known in previous cases of similar
character, of mutilation without feel
ing, of the amputation of both legs
without a shock Of pain; in short, 4
story of fatal injury and death without
suffering or loss Of consciousness until
just the moment before life was extin-
guished. 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. AIolloy
was on his way to the California sugar
refinery, where he was Il cooper, on
Aug. Ii, 1891. and that when he was at
the side of the railroad track, between
the bridge and Potrero. heavy freight
train left the track and ran over his
legs above the knees, and that they
were few hours thereafter amputated
by Dr. r. e. Williams at the receiving
hospital.
The doctor who amputated Molloy's
legs said to an Examiner reporter:
"N1olloy did not suffer from the terri
BILE accident which resulted in his
death. He told me he felt no pain
from being struck and run over by the
train and that he did not suffer there
after from the effects of the frightful
shock. When I saw him he was not in
any apparent misery, though his crush
ed legs We're hanging in a mangled con-
dition 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 man
smoking cigar in a rocking chair. He
said that few strokes Of the knife
would settle the leg question with him
forever. l then proposed to amputate
his leg, and he watched me put the in
struments in the antiseptic bath. He
said he supposed if he didn't feel a
train of cars he wouldn't feel little
thing like a knife, and on making an
examination I discovered that he was
still wholly insensible to pain. There
was, therefore, no occasion to give him
chloroform, and I amputated his legs
while he watched me. He knew some
thing was pressing against his legs
when the knife went in, but there was
no pain. H. watched the knife go
through tho muscles and nerves with as
much Indifference rs if l had been cut
ting into beefsteak. A few hours
later he died from the effects of the
shock. There is no theory for the &C.
centrities of the case. All we know
or all we can say is that the peculiar
insensibility to pain he exhibited in
some way arose from the nervous
shock. In some manner the injury par
alyzed the sensory nerves and left the
nerves of motion intact, for he could
talk all right and move himself readily.
Such a case Of frozen nerves might not
occur again in ages