Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1913-01-14
Mistellat,eous 8eaaina.
BODY A MECHANICAL MARVEL
Remarkable Cases Of Resistance to
Death When Recovery Seems I'm.

possible.
There Is a universal notion that any
serious injury to or about the brain is
incidental to sure death. Popularity this
is exemplified by gum-shoe artists and
Apaches who brain their unfortunate
victims with blackjacks and sandbags,
| and by suicidal lunatics who shoot out
their brains by swapping the pistol
sandbagged men ever succumb? How
numerous are the half-shot, would be
suicides that actually recover! 1t is
truly unusual to find them completely
decimated.
Physicians and employees about hos
pitfalls are constantly astounded at the
relatively slight damage done to the
gray matter within the skull cap after
what be thought fatal bullet wound.
have witnessed more than one such
perforated brain that suffered so little
harm that jail sentence followed for
the pitlable creature. True enough,
most Of them die, but many of them
remain alive long enough to tell all
about the affair to prevent the police
from looking for the perpetrator Of a
dark and dastardly deed.
Thus, it may be realized how continu-
ously the mind of man will further
the vital activities Of the body. He
thinks steadily, he talks connectedly,
his pulse beats violently, he breathes,
he lives long after the bullet has plow-
ed an extra furrow through his brow.
Often the end does not come-except
when the vital nerve centers are sever
ed-for a definite interval after his
last wishes have been expressed.
1t is useless to fare far afield for ex-
amples Of this strange human resis-
tance to death and disintegration.
There are on record, many-too nu-
merous, in fact, to mention.
That of Patrick P. O'Hara is one Of
them that Is perennial in its interest.
O'Hara was granite blaster; he was
engaged at the crucial moment In tamp-
ing dynamite into the serpentine crew
ice Of a precipitous cliff. The tamping
device was a vanadium steel machet
somewhat less than fifteen pounds in
weight, but only little more than an
inch in diameter. When the explosion
cleared away 1t was discovered that
this bar of steel had been driven right
through the luckless laborer's Uranium.
It penetrated the left cheek just be-
meath the high cheek bone. went on up
just behind the eye socket and into the
brain, and passed out at the very pin
nacle of his dome shaped head. At the
top Of his head there remained rough,
lacerated hole larger than half dol
lar and as long as a good but cheap
cigar.
His optic nerve was severed, but, ex-
cept for the unilateral blindness, he
Tas quite strong and at work four
weeks later.
Mountainous to the imagination in
the record of its almost unbelievable
resistance to death or destruction is
the case Of A. S., carpenter 81 years
old, reported by Prof. William 8. Hal
stead, of the Johns Hopkins hospital.
This young man fell into the hands of
certain hilarious students, and, while
saturated more or less with their OPEN
hearted hospitality, made so bold as to
boast Of his prowess as the only origi-
nal living human ostrich in captivity.
Challenged by a wager Of cheese and
small beer, he sat himself down. and
swallowed 208 various and sundry ar
ticles, consisting Of nails, tacks, keys,
watch chains, horseshoe nails, knife
blades, handles, tins, dog collars and
two and one half ounces Of broken
glass; In his account Of this marvellous
human goat, Prof. Halsted has at
tached photograph Of the contents Of
the stomach as removed by him five
days after this drunken saturnalia of
nails and needles, knives and chains.
Exactly four weeks afterward this
iron fed young man left the Johns Hop
kins hospital as sound as a cowbell.
This was twelve years ago, and he Is
alive and we'll today.
Just few years previous to DR.. Hal
sted's celebrated case. DR.. Meisenbach
reported to the American Medical as
ISOLATION that he had extracted from q
patients stomach twenty-five barbed
wire fence staples, fifteen large screws.
sixteen horseshoe nails, thirty -one
half inch wire nails, sixteen thirty-two
caliber cartridges, five thirty eight cal
iber cartridges, two knife blades, two
inches of washstand chain, some brass
nails and staples, as we'll as some elec-
trio light globes. Like the other young
man, this patient completely recovered.
Such heavy articles Of diet are, for
tunately, rather uncommon, but there
are equally strange examples Of the
power Of complex human tissues refus-
ing to be annihilated. There Is the
account of Hasselutist's travels In the
Levant, where 1000 native Abysinians
were found destitute of provisions en-
route to Cairo. Before the encounter
they had lived two months on gum
arabic alone, and, except for some
slight emaciation, no illness had occur
red. The oft discussed experiment of
the American, DR.. Tanner, who, some
few years back, tasted without Ill re-
suits for forty days and forty nights,
scarcely needs repetition here.
The newly elected president of the
American Medical association, Prof.
Abraham jacob, Of New York, tells OF
an interesting instance Of fever or high
temperature in a fireman who was in
jured by the revolving rods Of an en-
gine, where the thermometer register
ed the astounding figures Of 14S de-
grees. 1.-The temperature was taken
carefully in the presence Of many per-
sons, with various thermometers, and
in several different spots Of the body.
More than five days 1t maintained an
elevation above 120 degrees. In dis
cussing this case Prof. Welch told OF
one that had for brief interval reach