The sun., 1900-02-05
LIES CLOSE
10 THIS BOYS HEART
Wonderful Revelations by Use
Of the X-rays on an Or
phana at Clayton.
DELAWARE COLLEGES OUTFIT
Professor N. w. Brown, With Ora.
IL. p. Dwight and j. q. Cobb,
photographs the Heart and
Finds an Operation
TO be Impossible.
BY Special Dispatch to The Sun.

By Special Dispatch to The Sun.
Smyrna, Del, Feb. 4.-The case of
William Butler, colored, an inmate of
st. Jo.eph's Industrial Home for Colored
Orphans at Clayton, is attracting great
attention. Butler, who is Is years of
age, was accidentally shot three weeks
ago yesterday, and since that time has
been lingering between life and death.
Additional interest is given his case, as
in some respects his condition resembles
that in which Senator Goebel, of Ken
lucky, was after being shot.
Every effort is being made to save
Butlers's life. Former Congressman j..
Irving Handy has interested himself in
his case and when DIR. Edward E.
Dwight, OF Smyrna, made application to
Delaware College that the Roentgen
X.rays outfit be sent to St. Josephs
Home, it was through the genial ex
Congressman kindness that the request
was complied with. The college sent
Professor n O. w. Brown with the out
fit to Clayton on Saturday to locate the
bullet.
DIR. Edward E. Dwight, of Smyrna,
and DR.. ]. s. Cobb, of Clayton, have
been attending Butler, and they assisted
Professor Brown in putting the, Xrays
on the young man..
The X-rays showed that the bullet,
which was from thirty-two caIibre re-
volver, had struck the left collar bone at
| the outer edge and passed inward under
the breast and lodged in the pericardial
cavity, a sac covering The heart. An
| X-ray photograph was taken OF the
heart and sections adjacent Saturday
evening.
This morning the X.raya were again
placed on the young man and two more
photographs taken. Thess were more
satisfactory than the one Of the night
4 previous. owing to the fash that she tenn
tperature 0f the room en- Saturday even
Ing had been toa high, oaueing the
! pafieAs To prespisy sac AasBpeu .the
| lBiate. The aizs ofths piass Was llxl4
\ fncAes. Y. It'll, ~. -
when Drs. Dwight snd Cobb had first
4 examined the patisn4 ehSy found the per-
cardIal cavity go f!lsd Win blood that
ithey could hear the wtrRt auid swish
1 about, az the heart nssl ssA at 6rst
feared that ID would bs nSssaary 10 tap
the cavity TO remove this blood 'fr i'm
about the life ofgsR.
| The x,rays photograph showed the
bullet TO be two inehss fSsan the surface
OF the body and apparently In the lowest
part of the pericardiura, directly beneath
the point OF the heaxt and about one
half an inch from the heart. The bullet
passed and penetrated eleven inches OF
tissue and went through the upper lobe
of the left lung.
While revelations made by the x-rays
we're truly wonderful, they also showed
tI ha fy,vf hn uf,i1 N "
man. An operation is out OF the ques-
tion, for as soon as air reaches the blood
about the heart blood poisoning will set
| in, as the churning il is receiving has
, brought it to this unhealthy condition.
The physicians have, in the case of
this young man, experienced the same
trouble as the physicians OF the late
, Senator Goebel. When turned on his
side his temperature acts the same as did
Goebel's. 1t drops from 20 to 80 deg rees
: at once and he has to be turned back.
II is presumed that the bullet turns
around in the cavity when the body is
turned. For this reason he must be kept
absolutely quiet.
r A close study of the X-rays photo
I graph gives the idea that the presence Q!
1 this foreign substance, the bullet, will
cause sufficient effusion n the pericard
/, ial membrane to let an exudation form
7 around and encyst It. This, it le hoped
: will cause gradual liberation, which
i will eat an opening through the bottom
a of the sac, allowing the bullet to drol
into the stomach and pass out through
' the bowels.
b This mass of fibrin which viii have
:, formed, it is believed, will close the hol
a through which the bullet dropped anc
thus prevent any communication be
v tween the stomach and the psrcardia
n cavity.
Butler suffers no pain but is kept per
fectly quiet.
St. Josephs Home has a Westing
:, house electric light plant and thecnrren
y for The X-rays apparatus WAS secured b.
: merely removing an incandrscept glob
and attaching the wires. The kindnes
l. Of the faculty of Delaware College i
', sending Prof. Brown to Clayton with tn
: !. Roentgen outfit may prove, as the inves
~ a tigation seems to suggest, benefit +
science.