The evening times., 1898-08-13
WITH HURT GRAINS.
A YOunx Men Lives After . GRAY
Wound Of the Head.

A Youax Men Lives After . Grave
Wcund Of the Head.
Lieut.. John H. Ballentine. OF the Dem
yer Cadets. suffered an accident on June
16. by which ''his brains were virtually
blown from his head;" yet he still liveI.
A parallel case is one long familiar to
the students of surgical text books-that
of New England man through whose
brains a crowbar had been blown in
blasting. He lived for years. and fed to
California to save his head from the doc
tors when he should die. As a matter
of record, they kept trace of him and
got his skull when he died. Lieut.. Bal
lentine was shooting at a target with a
Sprinfield rifle when 1t exploded, send
ing the breech-lock into his brains" The
first examination led the doctors to say
that he could not live. Later. his i'm
proved condition gave some hope. but
the verdict was that. at least, he must
lose sight and reason. Now, however.
live long and enjoy his full eyesight. all
his mental faculties, and good physical
health. He was conscious whea rut on
lHC operating Ills dCCOuhi 10 Suhi-
married from the report in the Denver
Times:
His entire head was one mass Of shat
tered skull. through which the brain
protruded horribly. AS quickly as pos
sible work commenced on him, and the
removal of all foreign substances was be-
gun. The breech-block was about two
inches long, in the shape of an L with
the tail about three-quarters Of an inch
long. To this tail was attached a thread
ed projection half an inch long. The
peculiar formation of the block caused
the terrible destruction. From surgeons
at the hospital 1t was learned that the
block took a straight course in its de-
structiNe flight. 1t entered the head In
the center of the frontal bone, just at
the top of the nose. The right eye of
the young man was resting on the
weapon when II exploded. This threw
the block into the head at such an angle
thai 1t carried away the entire front OF
the right side of the skull. Instead Of
penetrating the skull, on the near right
side 1t lodged just within the walls of
the skull and remained there. The gun
fragment made an immense hole. Into
this the surgeons peered and. with their
instruments. IT was not a difficult task
to find 1t. As the block entered 1t car
ried with 1t about twenty pieces OF bone,
which were also removed. and the wound
carefully dressed. Later, a small piece
of wood was found In the wound. and
that. too, was removed. An antiseptic
dressing was applied and the young man
left to good nursing and the work of
The following day. much to the aston
lshment OF the surgeons. the young man
retained his consciousness. The optic
tn hA taft
posed to have been severed and communi-
cation thus cut of from the brain. The
destruction had been so great that none
of the surgeons believed for a moment
that the eyesight of that organ would
ever be OF service.
Both eyes were carefully bandaged and
the daylight excluded. The patient was
then put under the regular course of
treatment for convalescents. Several
days ago he expressed a desire TO be
taken to his home, and the surgeons
agreed that he should be taken home to-
day.
Interest from a medical standpoint in
the case is one OF vast interest. As Bal
iantine leaves the hospital he Is minus
fully two-thirds of the front lobe of the
brain. This is supposed to control the
faculty Of intellect and memory.
Yet the memory of Ballantine Is al
uoSl peIlcCt ds tHt surgeons nave
been able to ascertain. Last week his |
mother called at the hospital and he re-
quested her to read to MIN the conciud- |
ing chapter of serial running in a popu- |
lar magazine. Not only had he retained |
the date when the magazine was to have |
appeared but the preceding chapters were |
fresh In his memory. Ballantine also rec |
oenized one of the physicians who was
first on the scene of the accident
When the surgeons examined Ballan-
tine they found a piece of skull about |
three inches square lodged between the |
skull and scalp over the right ear. This |
was portion of the right frontal bone |
and was so securely lodged as to be easily |
mistaken for a fracture. This was re-
moved. From this time he was inter- |
ested in the affairs of the world Several |
days afterward he asked to see a news |
pa per, explaining TO his father that he
desired TO see the appointments of the
officers of the cadets for the ensuing
year. He criticised the appointments and
never lacked in memory of any of the
men,"