The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1896-05-07
WANTED.

confdentially; "a very ugly case in
deedP'
The unconscious patient, borne into
our surgery upon a stretcher, was fright
fully injured. That was evident at
glance.
He was passenger by ship just ar
rived from the Cape. and while prepar-
ing to come ashore heavy box, swung
aloft by the vessels crane, had slipped
and fallen on him.
Jim Clifford and were partners in
an east end practice, close to the docks.
His blood soaked clothing bore no
marks which could lead to his identifi-
cation.
No limbs were broken, but the neck
and shoulder We're fearfully lacerated,
and one side Of the face was dreadfully
mangled. 1t was not until late the fol-
lowing evening that he seemed to recov-
er his senses, and then Of course he was
too weak to converse.
Jim was strongly in favor of his re-
moval, as soon as practicable, to the
nearest hospital. The sick man must
have overheard our conversation, for he
signed feebly to my colleague to stoop
down.
'sNot to the hospital, for heavens
sake!" whispered the poor fellow.
Anywhere but there. Stay here-no
friends-soon be betterl' he gasped
painfully.
Neither Of us had the heart to remove
our patient against his will, though his
stay involved one Of us being constantly
in the house and the services of a male
attendant as well.
Days and weeks slipped by, and,
though our patient hovered between life
and death more than once, he continued
to stay with us and to engross more or
less of our attention.
The singular thing was that apparent
ly the patient was without relatives or
friends in this country-did not know
soul in London. So he told us, bit by
bit, adding that his name was Octave
Henry, G-.u that he had been in South
Africa for many years A couple of rude
sea chests, sent up froll the ship, con-
tanned all his belongings.
"I'll tell you what it is," said Jim
in his own emphatic way as we sat to-
ge.her Ill our snuggery one night, "I'll
tell you What it is, Fraser, our friend
up stairs will slip through our fingers
after all if we don't look out. There's
brain mischief setting in from some
splinte-Sd bone, and unless we can do
SOM thing to remove the brain pressure
well, yoodby to his chance of life!'
Our latient willingly gave his con-
sent to the opera tion, and the whole af-
fair was ranged and carried out with
in a week.
Recover from the operation Of tre-
panning is always tartiy. In the case Of
the man Henry, with his already shat
tered phys que. it was more than usual
ly protractnd.
One MOI hing remember we'll. Cliff
ford and were by u bedside. The
patient, for the time peiHs, had revived
sufficiently to show himself conscious of
our presence and feebly to sign his
warsj.
Bat there was something about the
appearance Of his eyes that morning
which struck me rs boirg unusual, a
curious, preCccupied lock. When Jim
and had left him to the care of his at
tendant, I remarked upon this symptom.
"You noticed it, them" answered
Jim moodily. "I thought you woula.
All, but that is only one aspect of the
case, not the most serious eitherv
Here he broke off abruptly. waited,
without speaking till he began once
more:
"Did you ever study the subject of
sense transference?"
Iccnfessed that / had not done so to
any great extlLt.
az bcgins to occur to me, " continued 4
Jim, that that is what we have to deal
with il the case-nothing more or less.
However it has happened, one thing IS
vcIv plain to me-that the sense of hear
ing in this case is not absolutely destroy.
ed, hit, as I may put it, diverted into
the optic region-grafted, as it were,
into the sense Of sight.
"But is such thing possible?" I ex.
claimed anxiously.
"Ycs, theoretically it is," returned
my y@rtaer gravely, ''but practically no
example Of it has yet occurred in the
case-that is, Of human being can
only guess that in the present instance
purely accidental causes have led up to
it. But the fact remains that, as have
just said, the man now sees-actual y
sees, remember-that which. in ordinary
circumstances, he would have heard
My colleagues diagnosis proved to be
true, as we soon found. Little by little.
as consciousness returned, it became