The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-05-10

point where the knife had entered was
 at least half an inch higher than where
 it had penetrated the intercostal space,
 the passage forming a valve which all lowed the outward passage of fluids, but remained closed to the outside air.
 From this fact alone the case was @ re-
 markable one, not to speak of the man.
 ner in which the heart stood the rough
 manipulation necessary to the treat ment followed.
 With a eontrivance composed of @ double catheter, an inspirator, and Q douche bag, the surgeon was able to si- phon off the accumulation and wash
 ouB the cavity with boraein acid in hot water. The curved silver catheter was put through the wound and passed
 around the heart, From June 18th to July 9th the douches were kept up reg ularly, and on July 18th the patient felt quite we'll The wound troubled him no longer and nothing remained but the valyular trouble.
 Hess was then removed to Fruityale to rest until the original wound healed
 up, Dr. Deane not seeing him again un- til August 1st He called at the house
 where his patient was stopping, and found him at work in the garden. The
 doctor found that heart trouble still ex-
 isted, and all the idiopathic symptoms
 of mitral regurgitation were quite ap-
 parent. He insisted that Hess should
 rest and continue the doses of eonValla-
 ria majalis. Dr Deane did not sec him
 again until a month had passed, when,
 after 8 careful examination, he could
 discern not the least heart murnur.
 During the thirty days preceding the
 heart had returned to it's normal condi-
 tion. Hess stated that he had been i'll for three days during the middle of the month of August, when be had had great pain in his heart and rapid, ir- regular pulse.
 Since that time Clyde Hess has been a well man, despite the fact that the
 knife of Bandit Sontag had punched a hole in his heart; despite the further fact that the silver catheter of the sur geon and the fingers of that gentleman had pushed the heart out of position time and time again. A peculiar feel ing, Hess told his doctor, came over him as these foreign bodies touched the heart rather numbing than anything else. Last week he played leading ju- venile roles, and is now preparing to go on the road with company. He has passed the stage where he cares to plunge any more daggers into himself, and has no pleasant recollection of the last attempt save his remarkable recov- cry.
 That it was a remarkable recovery is attested by the most eminent authori- ties on surgery. Erichsen, whose work is standard, in speaking of wounds of the heart, says: "These injuries are generally immediately fatal from the loss of blood and the nervous shock the patient sustains. There are many cases on record, however of per sons who have walked or run some con- siderable distance after receiving q wound of the heart.
 "Drs. Oliver and Samson" continued Erichsen, have collated twenty-nine cases of penetrated wounds of the heart that did not prove fatal in the forty eight hours after the receipt of the in- jury. On analysis it Is found that the rapidity of the death depends greatly on the direction of the wound and the part of the organ injured. When the wound is parallel to the axis of the heart Gas 1t was in the Hess easel 1t Is not so speedily fatal as when in a trans verse direction. The wounds of the au- ricle are more immediately followed by death than those of the ventricle."
 With out referring to numerous cases reported by earlier surgeons there are a sufficient number of instances reported by modern writers to prove that an in dividua1 may live for many days and even recover altogether from wounds of the heart. Latour, a French army sur geon, records the case of soldier who lived for six years after having been wounded with a musket ball in the right ventricle. The ball was found fin the heart at the post mortem.
 pr. G. Fisher. an eminent German professor, who has written an exten- sive treatise on wounds of the heart, | mention one case, that of bell hang or, who was shot, the bullet lodging in the left ventricle. He lived for twenty | years after the shooting, and at the | post mortem the bullet was found en- 3apsuled.
 These cases are not numerous enough | to take from the lustre of Hess achieve | ment in persisting to live and grow we'll l and act strongly after the dig he gave | himself in that organ, with which ac- .ors, and other people are supposed to | owe. He remains a wonder to the | world and somewhat of a conundrum | 70 the doctors.