The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1898-05-06
WhIMS OF BULLETS.
one Cas Never Tell Where They VIII
Lodge In the Body.


Within the past fwo years DR.. Samuel
II. Garyin, the Jail physician. has been
keeping the bullets extracted from the
bodies of prisoners whose wounds were
dressed before the men were placed behind
the bars, says the Louisville Courier Jour-
nal. The collection rapidly increased, but
recently DIR. Garvin found q number OF
the bullets missing from the little tin box
In which he keeps them and has never
been able to trace them. Strolling into his
Office In the jail, a reporter found the doc
tor closely examining the bullets which
were scattered about the table.
1t Is something remarkable" he eaid,
picking up one OF the small slugs that was
battered and twisted out of shape show
tho human body will defect a bullet.
Now, this one recalls the time when
negro was sent here who was shot In the
left shoulder. / probed for some time
without being able to locate the ball and
was about to give the search up as hope
less when found 1t lodged securely un-
der the mans tongue. He never felt Ii
there and was greatly surprised when I
cut 1t out. The operation never interfered
with his speech afterward.
''Now, this one reminds me of another
ing up a piece of metal that was curved on
one side and fiat on the other. "A man
named King was brought here recently,
who was shot in the lower part of the left
jaw. probed for the ball and succeeded
in finding half of the bullet above the ear,
under the scalp. / was never able to find
the other half.
The ball looked as If 1t had been cut
w n h.
surface. Go many persons submit them
selves to the doctors knife and thin, steel
probe that he remembers but few of the
names of the persons upon whom he has
operated. He cited an instance where a
man was shot between the toes and the
ball was taken out at the ankle.
One bullet had been hattened from the
broad end almost down to the middle. 1t
had turned in it's flight 1t had struck
negro squarely on the forehead, but such
was the resistance of the thick frontal
bone that, instead of penetrating into the
head, its course was abruptly stopped, and
the ball was cut from the skin. Had it
been white man, DIR. Garvin said, the
bullet would have pierced the forehead
and entered the brain.
Lying about the table were about 30 Of
the little pieces of lead, bent and flattened
into every conceivable shape, caused by
striking or grazing the bone. Each has
its history, but shooting bee Is an ordi-
nary occurrence, and the jail physician sell
dom bothers about the history or the de-
tails of the case.
In speaking of probing for bullets and
peculiar incidents in regard to shooting
scrapes DR.. Garvin recalled the day in 1855
when General Lowell II. Rousseau was
shot by DIR. Standiford In the courthouse
yard, the provocation being political dis
pute. General Rousseau was carried into
an office on Court place, where 1t was
found that he had been shot in the center
of the abdomen. When the location Of the
wound was discovered, the physicians i'm
mediately gave up hope of General Rous-
seau's recovery. On examination, how
ever, they found that the ball had struck
the Inca alba, the dense, fibrous tissue,
about an inch wide, that extends around
the abdomen. This saved the general &
life. The ball circled around and lodged
somewhere near the spinal column and
was never removed.