Rural Retreat times. [volume] (Rural Retreat, Va.) 1892-1918, 1911-11-03

~ young ST. Louisan
=z=zsazS became embroiled
in an argument
with another younth, There was
fight Young Lawles was stabbed in
mobile and brought several miles to
hospital. This took minutes and many
precious ones. When the patient was
finally placed on the operating table
he was still conscious. So startling
was the nature of the wound that the
Oldest internes paled when they saw
the extent of the injury. Twelve
stitches were required to close the
cash through the heart muscles. The
patient lived He was living when the
hospital authorities heard from him
last, and that was but a short time
since. His chance of life when he
was brought into the hospital were
less than nothing. 1t was notable
case of the fooling of death.
Men are hard to kill at times. Lit
tie Andrew Ceramic was accidentally
shot through the head. There was no
doubt that the ball had penetrated
the brain tissue. No one expected the
child to live. Ten years ago death
would have been more than certain.
But surgery, and especially brain sur
gerry, has made long leaps in that time.
These leaps have been forward When
death did not ensue the eager in
ternes saw a chance to save life.
They did. Little Andrew Ceramic
was discharged from the hospital a
few days ago. He was apparently on
the road to complete recovery in
spite of the mutilated brain tissue
that was plowed by the heavy bullet.
Death was tricked of something that
seemed certainly his.
There is wonderful vitality in most
human tissues. 1t does not want or
intend to die. 1t fights against disso-
luton with the inherited yigor that
may have come down through ten
thousand generations. In order to
fool death the scientists have
learned to take advantage of all these
things. They have trained the war
rior cells, the white blood corpuscles
to do things for them.
Thirty-three years was once the av-
erage life of man. Wars, famines ana
pestilences helped to cut down the
duration Of mans span No one knows
now just how long the average life
is any more. 1t is changing all the
time by getting longer.
Death used to reach out through
appendicitis and claim his victims in
spite of the best efforts of the man
who fought back att him with the
scalpel There was something wrong
This was remedied and the death rate
sank and continues to sink. The good
surgeon has fooled death so often in
appendicitis cases that it is no longer
looked upon as particularly serious
operation.
Before that time, in the days when
the war hospitals were deadly beyond
the telling, an operation of any sort
in one of these places was grave.
They had not learned as yet how to
round up slay and utterly destroy the
pus germs that were creeping every
where over the unsterilized beds and
planking, clinging to the clothing OF
lAO oul 5COll cu0 iOcltAu5 IL ehC AOo
pital atmosphere. They do not exist
any more. They are guarded against
and watched by every attendant, OPP
orator and inferno of any hospital. The
death percentage from this cause has
sunk low and is sinking lower 1t is
an everyday instance of puzzling, BAT
fling and fooling death.
If you love life you do well to be
living now. You have better chance
to see more of 1t and live out more
years than you would have had if you
had lived yesterday. You will have a
still better chance tomorrow, for some
scientist poking around with a micro
scope may find something today that
will increase the average life span by
another decade. Some Metchnikoff is
apt to go to a step further and sur
prise the secret of living a few years
longer from outraged nature. You
have a better chance to swindle death
out of a few years right now than
you would had you lived in the days
when germs were unheard of and
bleeding was the most sovereign rem
cdy at the command of the healer
Edward Schneider, a Hollander Of
middle age, went up on smokestack
60 do some painting He was working
so feet in the air when the scaffolding
gave way A rope, poorly fastened,
let knot slip and he fell the full go
feet to the top of shed, and bound
ed thence to the ground. 1t was case