The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1909-11-21
MISSING LIMBS
HAUNT OWNERS
Some Remarkable Experiences
Are Recalled
ARE NOT EXPLAINED
One Man Suffers Terribly From Acid
Burns on Leg That Had Been
Amputated-Try to Use
/ Absent Arms.
'om the st. Louis Republic.


| In one of the hospitals here In st.
| Louis they tell this story to illustrate
the power that the amputated limb still
| keeps over the rest of the body after 1t has
been severed. The physicians and nurses
| had taken charge of a burly laborer after
one of his legs had been removed at the
knee by the regular surgical staff. AS
the day one of the nurses happened to
the anaesthetic he began to complain OF
sensation of burning in the missing limb.
| 1t was supposed to be one of the pecu-
| liar hallucinations that are sometimes no.
ticed in such cases and but little attention
| was paid to it, although the pain seemed
! to grow more and more intense. Later in
| the day one of the nurses happened to
notice that. after the limb had been sew
cred and thrown aside, In some manner,
bottle of acid had been spilled over it,
burning the flesh and discoloring 1t badly.
Just why the man should have felt all
the sensations that he would have felt
If the acid had been spilled before the
nerves were severed the surgical staff has
never been able to explain. Cold-blooded
medical science does not attempt to offer
solution.
The instance seems to belong more near
ly to the realm of the occult 1t Is
well known fact that the man who loses
leg or an arm never loses the feeling
that the arm or the leg is still a part of
the body. He may have lost it in battle,
In a railroad wreck or means of pre-
serving life after becoming infected with
some form OF blood poisoning, but the
missing limb haunts him the rest Of his
days. In an absent minded moment or in
a moment of great excitement the feel
ing that the limb Is still there is apt to be-
tray him into danger or to his death.
Only about per cent of those who suf-
fer amputation lose all sense of feeling in
the part taken away. There is something
tragical, almost CHASTITY in the idea of q
! phantom limb haunting man through his
| days and betraying him in some unguard-
ed moment into some effort whose failure
| will suddenly remind him of his loss.
! few months ago a Confederate vet
eran who left an arm at Ft. Donelson
was standing a street corner in north
st. Louis waiting for a car. A little girl
of or years playing about on the walk
and in the street happened to run in front
of the swiftly moving trolley car. The
distance was too short for the motorman
to hope to STOP The gray-haired veteran
I dashed for the street and attempted to
seize the child just as the fender was
| brushing her dress. But the hand that
| should have swung her to safety was lost
years ago back of where the field hospital
stood at Donelson. The ghostly member
had betrayed him and the child was
taken from the wheels mangled and dy-
] ing
! In another instance a gallant officer who
/ had lost an arm at Shiloh was riding
| FESTIVE and fractions horse. Annoyed by
/ the caperings of the animal he attempted
/ to use his lost hand to grasp the reins,
! while he struck the horse with the other.
I A terrible fall was the result as the mad
dened beast sprang sideways to escape
! the punishment
In experimenting with cases of this
/ character it has been found that II an
electric current is applied to the nerves at
! the stump of the leg or arm the irri-
| tation is carried to the brain and referred
to all the regions of the lost limb. On
one occasion a mans shoulder was thus
| electrified three inches above the point
where the arm had been taken off. He
! had been unconscious of the limb for
years; 1t had ceased to haunt him but as
/ the electric current ran through his body
| the man, who had been entirely ignorant
| of its possible effects started up, shout
ed. 1.-THE handl the handr and trying to
grasp the phantom member with the liv-
| ing grasp of the sound fingers. To him
| no resurrection of the dead could have
! been more startling.
| AS a matter of fact. pain is not in any
organ or in any part of the body, and
J the mind alone can feel. When the nerve
end was electrified in this case it carried
the sensation to the brain, which at once
| referred it back to the missing nerve tips
| that had dotted the amputated hand and
| arm One of the most familiar instances
of this transfer of pain is seen in the
| funny bone" just back Of the elbow. II
| this bone receives a sharp blow the ting
| ling sensation and the pain will be felt
| In the hand, and particularly in the third
and fourth fingers.
| When the electric current was forced
| along the nerves and muscles of the man
J who had lost his arm 1t was carried along
| the cleaning tangle of nerves that dart
| out from the spinal cord and branch of
| from the great spinal nerve trunks into
the upper part of the body. To all these
| nerves and nerve centers the missing arm
was still in its place. The tingling cur
| rent resurreoted the phantom hand as
| clearly as If It had never disappeared
! The individual who has suffered an am
putation has to be constantly on guard to
keep from being betrayed by the phantom
limb. For years they may be haunted
| by a ghostly pain that they can feel In