The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1898-02-18
NO VITAL SPOT NOW,
WOUNDS OF HEART AND BRAIN THAT
HAVE FAILED TO KILL


Through Their Brains and Survived -Ad-
vances In Treating Such Cases.
For my own part, " said the doctor,
with shrug. 81 would prefer not to be
shot at all, whether in the heart, head,
lungs, liver or brain, and yet I 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 man with
egged bullet wound torn through his
sart-which organ was wildly exposed
the fiaring daub-while the angel of
ath was lowering over him, ready to
oh him away at any moment
Then, said the DOCTORS friend, "a
a stab in the heart is not neces-
}tal, as it is understood by mod
gery?"
at all, "Freturned the doctor.
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 well and as wide as a church door.
No man who has been wounded like
that ever survives more than minute.
"That man in the museum is alleged
to be Charles B. Nelson, who was mys-
teriously shot one evening while in the
company of Mrs. Edith Marguerite Sta
Piles 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 well and has good appetite l
am unable to say. He was formerly
cyclist of some note. Nelson's breast
was subjected to the K rays, and, ae-
eording to sciographs which were made
at the time, the bullet lodged in the
septumspf the heart-the fourfold par
tition Of muscular fiber that divides the
interior of that organ into right and left
aurieles and ventricles There it has
continued to throb up and down about
100, 600 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
man heart brings death.
THE most skillful and daring sur
geon on earth, if he were 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 I
have said, we have surgeons nowadays
who do undertake and carry to 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. A man may have
his heart punctured with the point of a
knife or needle and still recover from
the injury It used to be held that
wounds of this character were invaria-
bly, fatal. But wound of the heart is
not necessarily fatal, as is shown in the
case where a needle was removed by
Calender from the substance of that
organ. Gases of like nature have been
reported by Drs. Hahn, Agnew, Stelz-
ner and others. More than 80 cases
where rupture of the heart walls did
not result in immediate death are re-
ported by DIR. D. j. Hamilton. well
known Scotch surgeon and pathologist.
THE case Of Poole, prizefghter,
was one of the most remarkable. Poole
was shot in the heart while engaged in
an encounter with 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
a wish to finish the interrupted contest.
Twelve days later, however, he sudden
" dropped to the ground. Within five
minutes 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, man named Herbert ].
Fish while in a fit of temporary insan-
ity put 3S caliber bullet through his
brain, and at last accounts he was still
alive and apparently getting we'll. The
bullet, by all accounts, passed through
the right and left anterior hemispheres
of the brain, lodging finally in the pos
terror bone wall of the left eye socket.
In its course the ball destroyed 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
tragedy at the Briggs House in this city
several years ago, in which 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. It. was in August, 1887. One
day there was great uproar and excite
ment over shooting ARRAY in the apart