The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1913-03-06
BODY A MECHANICAL MARVEL.
Cases of Resistance to Death When
Recovery Seemed Impossible.

There is a universal notion that any
serious injury to or about the brain
is incidental to sure death. Popular
ly this is eXemplified by gum-shoe ar
lists and Apaches who brain their
unfortunate victims with kjacks
and sandbags, and bysuicidal lunatics
who shoot out their brains by snap
ping the pistol against their temples.
Yet how many sandbagged men ever
succumb? How numerous are the
half-shot, wdlld-be suicides that ac-
tually recover! 1t is truly unusual
to find them completely decimated.
Physicians and employees about
hospitals are constantly astounded
at the relatively slight damage done
to the gray matter within the skull
CAP after what be thought fatal
bullet wound. l have witnessed
more than one such perforated brain
that suffered so little harm that a
jail sentence followed for the pitiable
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 look
ing for the perpetrator of dark and
dastardly deed.
Thus, it may be realized how con-
tinuously the mind of man will fur
Their the vital activities of the body.
He thinks steadily, ne talks con-
nectedly, his pulse beats violently, he
breathes, he lives long after the bull
let has plowed an extra furroW
!, through his brow. Often the end
does not come-except when the vi
tai nerve centers are severed-for
definite interval after his last wishes
have been expressed. -
1t is useless to fare far aield for
| examples of this strange human re-
sistance 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 in
terest. O'Hara was granite blast
er; he was engaged at the crucial
moment in tamping dynamite into
the serpentine crevice of a preclpl-
tous cliff. The tamping device was
a vanadium steel machet somewhat
less than fifteen pounds in weight,
but only a little more than an inch
in diameter. When the explosion
cleared away it was discovered that
this bar of steel had been driven
right through the luckless laborer's
Uranium.
It penetrated the left cheek just
beneath the high cheek bone, went
on up Just behind the eye socket and
into the brain, and passed out at the
very pinnacle of his dome-shaped
head. At the top of his head there
remained a rough, lacerated hole
larger than a half dollar and as long
as a good but cheap cigar.
His optic nerve was severed, but,
except for the unilateral blindness,
he was quite strong and at work four
weeks later.
Mountainous to the imagination in
tho record of it's. almost unbelievable
resistance to death or destruction IS
the case of A. S., carpenter II
years old, reported by Prof William
S. Halstead, of the Johns Hopkins
hospital. This young man fell into
the hands of certain HILARIOUS stu
dents. and, while saturated more or
less with their open-hearted hospl-,
tality. made so bold as to boast of
his prowess as the only original llv-
ing human ostrich in captivity. Chal-
lenged by a wager of cheese and
small beer, he sat himself down and
swallowed 20S various and sundry
articles, consisting of nails, tacks,
keys, watch chains, horseshoe nails,
knife blades, handles, tins, dog COL
lars and two and one-half ounces
of broken glass. In his account of
this marvellous human goat, Prof.
Halstead has attached photograph
of the contents of the stomach as re-
moved 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 Hopkins
hospital as sound as cowbell. This
was twelve years ago, and he is alive
and we'll to-day.
Just a few years previous to DR..
Halstead's celebrated case. DR..
Meisenbach reported to the American
Medical association that he had ex-
tracted from a patients stomach 25
barbed wire fence staples, Is large
screws, 16 horseshoe nails, 81 half
inch wire nails 16 32-calibFe cart