The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1898-01-03
IS THERE NO VITAL SPOT =?
WOUNDS OF HEART AND BRAIN
THAT HAVE FAILED TO KILL.
Living Five Months With Bullet I'm
bedded in His Heart-A Needle Removed
from the Heart by Surgery-R covering
from Brain Wounds.

from the Heart by Surgery-Recoveripg
from Brain Wounds.
For my own part" said the doctor,
with a shrug. II would prefer not to
be shot at all, whether in the heart,
head, lungs, liver, or brain, and yet |
have taken note of many cases recently
In which persons have sustained gun
shot wounds of supposedly fatal charac
ter, who are still alive and going about
their business
The doctor and his companion were
passing downtown museum when the
conversation took this turn. Among
the freaks pictured and caricatured in
front of the building was man. with
ragged bullet wound torn through his
heart--which organ was wildly exposed
in the flaring daub-While the angel
of death was lowering over him, ready
to snatch him away at any moment.
The appeal to morbid amusement seek
ers was such as to lead to the infer
ence that the unfortunate with the
wound in his heart might obligingly
drop dead at any minute, for the spe-
| cial delectation of those who paid their
! dimes and walked in to see him.
Then" said the doctors friend, "a
shot or 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-,ooks about as deep
| as a well and as wide as a church door
| No man who has been wounded like
| that ever survives more than a min
| ute.
/ THAT man in the museum is alleged
| to be Charles B. Nelson, who was mys-
teriously shot one evening last summer
while in the company Of Mrs Edith
Marguerite Staples in Washington
| Park The shooting occurred on the
night of July 1, FIVE months ago, and
| the man With an ounce of lead in his
heart is still alive, Whether he sleeps
| well and has a good appetite am I'M
able to say. He was formerly cyclist
of some note. Nelson's breast was sub
| jected to the X-rays and according to
seiographs, which were made at the
time. the bullet lodged in the septum
of the heart-the four-fold partition of
muscular fibre that divides the interior
| of that organ into right and left auri-
cles and ventricles. There is has con-
tinued TO throb up and down about 100,-
600 times at every pulsation, refuting
the old theory of medical science that
ac al fn "A NJ !
heart brings death.
THE most skilful and daring surgeon
| on earth if he were asked to remove
the bullet from Nelson's heart, would
| shake his head in the negative. So this
man must carry his leaden handicap as
long as life shall last. Seems strange,
| doesn't it? In the sciograph views
| which We're made of Nelson's wound the
shadow of the bullet appears almost ex-
| actly in the centre of the thorax, mid
way between the ends Of the fourth pair
OF ribs. In the profile view of the
thorax the location of the black spot
shows that the bullet penetrated two
and half inches of cartilage and mus
Gle before it was stopped. At the point
where it entered the thorax the pericar-
dunn, which incloses the heart, touches
the sternum, itself less than an inch in
thickness; so that surgeons claim the
| other inch and a half of the bullet s
path was ploughed through the tibres of
the heart. The exact injury inflicted
upon the heart, however, is still an open
question, which will only be determined
satisfactorily to science by an autopsy.
1t has been argued by some that the
bullet was spent ball, which pierced
the percardium and dropped, in which
case the muscular tissues Of the heart
were not acerated or wounded.
and yet, Notwithstanding what /
have said, we have surgeons nowadays
who do undertake and carry to sue
cessful conclusion operations on tbs
heart. This is done by opening the
pericardum, for example, in cases of
dropsy of the heart, and drawing off the
aid by aspiration. A man may have
his heart punctured with the point of
a knife or a needle and still recover
from the injury. 1t used to be held
that wounds of this character were in
variably fatal. But wound of the
heart is not necessarily fatal, as is
shown in the case where needle was
removed by Calender from the sub
stance of that organ Cases of like ma
ture have been reported by Drs. Hahn
Agnew, Steiner, and others. More
than fifty cases where rupture of the
heart walls did not result in immediate
death are reported by Dr. D. J. Hamil-
ton, well known Scotch surgeon and
pathologist.
THE case of Poole, a prize fighter
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 1865. To all outward
appearance he recovered rapidly, and in
four days felt so well that he expressed
wish to finish the interrupted con-
test. Twelve days later, however, he
suddenly dropped to the ground. With
in 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
Valparaiso Ind, few days ago, a man
named Herbert J. Fish, while in a fit OF
temporary insanity, put 3S-calibre
bullet through his brain, and at last
accounts he was still alive and appar-
emily getting well. The bullet, by all
accounts passed through the right and
left anterior hemispheres of the brain
lodging firmly in the posterior bone wall
of the left eye socket. In its course the