The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1898-01-03
one point at which they found him most
at sea was that he did not believe or

one point at which they found him most
at sea was that he did not believe or
realize that he had shot himself.
Many Chicagoans will remember
tragedy at the Briggs house, in this city,
several years ago, in which a man who
was shot in the brain got well. j. S.
Mcdonnell we'll known veterinary
surgeon, and his wife We're boarders at
the hotel. 1t was in August, 1887. One
day there was a great uproar and ex-
element over shooting affray in the
apartments of the McDonnells. In the
quarrel Mcdonnell was shot by his wife,
the bullet entering the side of his head
in the parietal bone above the ear and
penetrating the brain, Within the next
forty eight hours the ball was removed
by DR. Liston III. Montgomery, and the
wounded man got well. The wife at
the same time shot herself in the head,
but her injuries were not serious. Old
time doctors used to pronounce wounds
like that of McDonnell's fatal in every
instance, and make very little effort to
save the patient. Brain injuries are
most serious, and most often prove fatal
when they occur near the base of the
brain.
'"The Army and Navy Journal recent
ly told of a French artillery officer who
carried bullet in his head for twenty
seven years. He was shot in the left
temple during the Franco Prussian
war. The bullet could not be extracted,
but it soon ceased to be painful and
the wound healed. A few months ago
the bullet began to move about, caus-
ing the soldier intense pain and driving
him almost mad Then there was a
lull and a short time ago, it is said,
the man removed the bullet from his
throat.
Cup to the time of the civil war but
little effort was made to operate on
gunshot wounds of the brain or abdo-
men. Since then much has been accom-
plished through experimental work and
clinical observation to elucidate the
subject. For wounds In the abdomen in
general American and German surgeons
advocate laparotomy as early as posi-
BILE
''Gunshot wounds in the head direct
ly involving the brain may be either
perforating or penetrating penetrat-
ing wound is one in which the missile
enters and does not emerge. perfor-
ating wound Is one in which the bullet
passes entirely through the head. The
injury to the skull or brain may vary
from a comparatively slight wound to
one which inflicts immense and wide
spread injury both to the skull and it's
contents The difference between the
wound of entrance. and the wound Of
exit is apt to be far more marked in the
skull than in the soft parts. AT the
wound of entrance the apertIlre in the
external table may be no larger than
the bullet itself, or may even be reduced
to simple slit, whereas the inner table
may be quite extensively fractured. At
the wound of exit the reverse is true.
The outer table will be more extensive
ly fractured than the inner, and in adj
dition to this, the entire aperture at the
wound of exit, as the ball strikes on
the concave surface of the skull, is apt
to be much larger than the wound OF
entrance.
''The recent advance in cerebral sur
gerry has materially changed treatment
Of such wounds. The difference between
the moderns treatment of gunshot
wounds of the brain and the older
methods is due largely to the applica-
ton of antiseptic discoveries and the
consequent boldness with whuch sur
geons interfere; to the use of the alum
mum gravity probe, and to knowledge
of the facts that drainage of the brain
is not only possible, but essential, and
that for the purpose both of searching
for the bullet and removing it surgeons
should often make counter opening by
trephining, Chicago Daily Tribune.