The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-04-13
BULLETS IN THE BRAIN
 THAT ARE NOT FATAL
From London Ideas.

From London Ideas
 Many a man fs walking about the streets of London today who was shot through the brain in south Africa.
 Many a lover. brother. or husband is lying stricken on the Belgian field with bullet wound in his heart or his head. A few years ago sweetheart, sister, or wife would have given him up for dead, and wept bitter tears over the loved one who would never return. But not so now.
 The modern surgeon-a mIrcle worker if ever there was one--has changed all this. His x-ray and his lancet are a few of the magic means of bringing the ap- parently dead to life, and nlling the heart of the home folk with joy near to burst ing.
 II Is certainly crumb of comfort to a man about to fight for his country to know that in battle not one in eyery 1000 projectiles Of all descriptions and weight take effect, but 1t Is better to know that many of those which hit him in the head or body are, comparatively speaking, harmless.
 A remarkable case Of this kind occurred during the South African campaign. Cor poral Thomas of the Worcester Mounted Infantry, was leading his pony up a hill at Arundel when Boer about 400 yards away. fired at him and hit him four times. One bullet went through him in immed- ate proximity to the heart, and another passed through the upper part of tho abdomen.
 Had this happened at Waterloo Mrs. Corporal Thomas would have been bereft or her husband. and the Thomas children would have been orphans. But it was in South Africa, and Sir William MacCormac was in attendance on the corporal He examined the patient and found there no symptoms of internal | injury to either the chest or the nbdo- men. The corporal had slight rise of temperature for three days. and week | later he was sitting in train condemn Ing the fate which transferred him down country "all on account of little stiff ness in my finger-jolnt' Every surgeon who knows anything l about his business can recall instances of recovery after the heart has been injured and the army surgeon, most of all. knows that even a bullet, lacerating and de- struotive thought 1t may be, Is not al- ways fatal.
 Men are alive today who carry in their hearts bullets which nave made their home there.
 
 French soldier was wounded by a pistol ball which lodged in the left upper cham Der, or auricle of the heart. For week l or two he walked about as if nothing had | happened then he began to feel a little pain, and his breathing became difficult. The X-rays were applied to his chest and l the bullet was seen lying embedded in the soft flesh of his heart and wagging l like a pendulum at every heart beat 1 It was the work of an hour to get him | in hospital, open the chest, and extract the bullet, and long before the fighting ended the gallant trooper was out with | his rife again.
 Dr. Schafer. German surgeon. who went through tho Russo-Japanese war, personally examined 500 soldiers of one Russian regiment all of whom had fally recovered from their wounds. Three months after the battle of Mukden. he l said, half the soldiers wounded there were again at the front performing full duty. In some regiments no less than TO per cent of those wounded at Mukden recov- 1 cred, and resumed active service within I three months.
 Never despair is the motto for the