The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-07-19

Do Not Always Suffer III Effects From Them-would-Be Suicides Who Boteh Their Work.
 The idea that the human brain is an organ so extremely delicate in it's struc- ture that il cannot bear the slightest physical hurt, says Tit-Bits, sometimes appears to receive a contradiction ;n the experience of people who have met with peculiar injuries to the heal. The history of brain surgery presents some remarkable facts in regard to the eX- tent to which the thinking organ will sometimes resist the effects 0f external injury. It has been shown that in some cases quantities of it's substan-c my be removed without appreciably dirnin ishing the normal intelligence of the pa- tient; while some have been known to carry the most extraordinary foreign substances embedded Tn their skiils for years.
 Finds of the most singular kind have been made in the :Nterio- substance of the living human bralH. The stranGcut things have been known to finl entry there through accident or design. In one case it was the blade of q penknife that was carried about in the brain for half a lifetime without the patient be- ing in the least aware of it; ir another 1t was a penholder that mad somehow found it's way there and remained m it's living hiding place without apparently interfering with the thinking power Of the organ; while recently piece of slate pencil was recovered from boys brain after it had been hidden there fer several years.
 It is, therefore, perhaps none the mole surprising that many a bullet which has found it's billet in 6 human brain has proved no more than a temporary inconvenience.
 A French soldier who received bullet in his head during the Franco-German war of 1870 carried it there for twenty seven years and was said to have felt no i'll effects till 1897. when it one day worked it's way downward into the muoth, and so rid him of its presence.
 In the case of German soldier who was shot in the head during the Son derbund war. he lived to carry the leaden souvenir in his brain for forty three years, and it was not extracted till after his death.
 These two remarkable cases, howev- CT, seem to be beaten by another that has recently been brought to light, the case being that of an old soldier still liingv who for over half a century has carried in his head the bullet received during the Austrian rebellion of 1S4S.
 Would-be suicides have occasionally put bullets into their brain to no pur- pose, and perhaps one of the most as tonishing cases of recent years was that dealt with at the Richmond hospital ony year or so ago. The patient had in vain tried to take his life by shoot ing himself in the head and after thus placing two bullets in his brain he was immediately conveyed in a cab to the hospital But he was so little affected at the time by the presence of the bull lets in his head that he actually alight- ed from the vehicle, walked along the garden path and up the steps of the hospital. and was then able to give an intelligent account of what had taken place.
 In a similar case of self-inflicted inju- " that came before the doctors at Guys hospital a few months later the would-be suicide, after firing a revol- yer bullet into his head, was discovered smoking his pipe as if nothing very se- rious had happened, and though the bullet had penetrated the skull to a depth of three and a half inches he was able to walk part of the way to the hospital and there undress himself without assistance previous to under going examination.
 The effects of removing bullets from the brain are sometimes as remarkable as any of the foregoing, and perhaps in this connection mention may be made of the case of military cadet operated on by doctor of Vienna just recently. On removing the bullet small quanti- ty of brain had also to be taken away, the peculiar result being that, though unaltered in any other respect, the pa tient irretrievably lost all of his good manners, for which he was noted. The eminent surgeon, therefore, suggests that the portion of brain removed with the bullet corresponds to what he de- scribes as the ''bump of good manners. "
 
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