The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1898-02-08

vances In Treating Such Cases.
For my own part, said the doctor,
with Il shrug, Il would prefer not to be
Shot at all. whether in the heart. head,
lungs, liver OF brain. and Yet / have
taken note Of many cases recently in
which persons have sustained gunshot
wounds OF supposedly fatal character
who are still alive and going about their
business.
The doctor and his companion were
passing . down town museum when the
conversation took this turn. Among
the freaks pictured and caricatured in
front Of the building was Il man with IA
ragged bullet wound torn through his
h~eart-which organ was wildly exposed
i'll the tlarlng daub-while the angel of
death was lowering over him, ready to
snatch him away at any moment.
Then said the doctors friend, "a
shot or a stab in the heart is not neces-
sarily fatal, as it is understood by mod.
ern surgery;
Not at ALL returned the doctor.
But, OF course, we are not speaking of
wounds as big and terrible as the one
IN that museum picture. That is appar-
emily even worse than the thrust re-
ceived by Mercutio-looks about as deep
as a we'll and as wide as a church door.
No man who has been wounded like
that ever survives more than a minute.
THAT man in the museum is alleged
to be Charles B. Nelson, who was mys.
terlously shot u evening while in the
company Of Mrs. Edith Marguerite Sta
pies in Washington park. The shooting
occurred on a night five months ago,
and the man with an ounce Of lead in
his heart is still alive. Whether he
sleeps we'll and has a good appetite l
am unable to say. He was formerly a
cyCliSt OF some note. Nelson's breast
was subjected to the X rays, and, ac-
cording to sciographs which We're made
at the time, the bullet lodged in the
septum of the heart-the fourfold par
tltlon OF muscular fiber that divides the
interior OF that organ into right and left
auricles and venrricles. There it has
continued to throb up and down about
100, 900 times a day ever since that mys-
FERROUS shooting, and at every pulsation
refuting the old theory Of medical sci
ence that the touch Of hostile metal to
mans heart brings death.
The most skillful and daring sur.
geon Oh earth, if he We're asked to re-
move the bullet from Nelson's heart,
would shake his head in the negative.
So this man must carry his leaden han
dicap as long as life shall last. Seems
strange, doesn't it:
And yet, Notwithstanding what
have said, we have surgeons nowadays
who do undertake and carry to a sue.
cessful conclusion operations on the
heart. This is done by opening the peri
cardium, for example, in cases of drop.
sy OF the heart, and drawing off the
fluid by aspiration. \ maj ma have
his heart punctured with the point Of q
knife or a needle and still recover from
The injury. 1t used to be held tina,
wounds Of this character were invaria.
bly, fatal. But a wound Of the heart i;
not necessarily fatal, as is shown in tbs
case where a needle was removed by
Calender from the substance Of that
organ. Cases of like nature have been
reported by Drs. Hahn, Agnew, Stelz.
her and others. More than 90 cases
where rupture Of the heart walls did
not result in immediate death are re.
ported by DR.. D. j.. Hamilton, a well
known Scotch surgeon and pathologist.
THE ca. , Of Poole, a prizefighter,
was II Of the most remarkable. Poole
was shot in the heart while engaged in
all encounter with a man named Baker,
in New Jersey, in 1866. To all outward
appearance he recovered rapidly and in
four days felt SO we'll that he expressed
Twelve days later, however, he sudden.
ly dropped to the ground. Within five
minute he was dead.
more remarkable still, perhaps, are
The numerous injuries to the brain and
spinal cord, which on first view would
be pronounced fatal and yet from which
the wounded persons recover. At Val
paraiso. Ind, "a man named Herbert j.
Fish while in a fit Of temporary insan-
ity put "a .3s caliber bullet through his
brain, and at last accounts he was still
alive and apparently getting well. The
bullet, by all accounts, passed through
the right and left anterior h%emispheres
q the brain, lodging finally in the pos
terror bone wall OF the left eye socket.
n its course the ball destroyed a large
amount Of brain matter. At the same
time it cut the optic nerves Of both eyes,
destroying the sight. In some way the
sense Of smell, too, was destroyed.
MANY Chicagoans will remember a
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, a well known veterinary
surgeon, and his wife were boarders at
the hotel. 1t was in August, 1887. One
day there was a great uproar and excite.
ment over a shooting ARRAY in the apart
ments Of the McDonnells. In the quar-
rel Mcdonnell was shot by his wife, the
bullet entering the side Of his head in
the parietal bone above the ear and pen.
Grating the brain. Within the next 48
hours the ball was removed by DR.. Lis
ton t.. Montgomery, and the wounded
man got well. The wife at the same
@i,,,n gh1t In,.,1 -, %l,, l,,.1 l-% 49,.