The New York herald., 1922-08-13
Our Hard Heads

with no avail. He was placed on the
ground and held by two persons
while traction was made with car
penter's pliers. This failing he was
taken to a coppersmith's, where he
was fastened by rings to the ground
and strong pincers were placed over
the dagger and attached to a chain
which was fastened to a cylinder re-
volved by steam force. At the second
turn of the cylinder the dagger came
out. During all the efforts at ex-
traction the patient remained per-
fectly cool and complained of no
pain. A few drops Of blood escaped
from the wound after the removal of
the dagger and in few minutes the
man walked to a hospital, where he
remained a few days without fever
or pain. The wound healed and he
soon returned to work. BY expert
ments on the cadaver Dubrisay found
that the difficulty in extraction was
due to rust on the steel and by the
serrated edges Of the wound in the
bone.
No Trouble at Ait
Unlike o. Henry's hapless hero,
some of us contrive to be jailed for
the slightest infraction Of the pena'
law; so, in the matter Of the dagger.
should prefer to believe the story
than TO test 1t. even though a recent
amendment takes attempted suicide
| out OF the category Of crime. The
| absence Of pain in brain injuries has
been attested SO often that we need
| not be incredulous about it. In the
case of baby Virginia Brown the
conjectures were that the bullet had
penetrated into the silent area" of
the brain and, therefore, the child
was unconscious of its presence.
| DR.. Harold Swanberg. in charge of
| United States General Hospital %,
Fort Sheridan. Illinois, reports, in
the American Journal of Roent-
0enoIo0y, August. 1921, case of
| brain penetration and retention of
| foreign body in which there was an
absence of the symptoms Of vertigo
and convulsions for fifteen months
after the onset. Again. where the
| bullet passed through the entire right
temporal lobe no paralysis followed
| the injury.
In all, DR.. Swanberg gives eleven
cases; of these three were fatal; OF
the eight living seven still had the
| foreign bodies in the brain. 1.-The
general health is fairly good" the
report continues. I'm no case does
the foreign body appear to be caus-
ing any special symptom: as far as
| we are able to ascertain the function
| of that portion of the brain in which
| the foreign body is located is not
disturbed as result of its presence"
Returning to the invaluable Gould
and Pyle we learn of the history, in
the ancient chronicles of Koenigs-
! berg, of a man who for fourteen
years carried in his head a piece
| of iron us large as his finger. Its
| long lodgment disconnected the man
little; it finally came out by the
! palatine arch. They also tell of an
old record of ball lying near the
sella turicica for more than a year.
when the patient suddenly died in
new accident.
The Medical aud Surgical Reporter
of Philadelphia records the case of
.Viennese bookbinder of as who
died in the Vienna Hospital in 1884.
He had always passed as an intelli-
gent man. but had, at irregular in
tervals. suffered from epileptic con-
vulsions. An iron nail covered with
rust was discovered in his brain;
from the history of his life and from
the appearance of the nail it was
judged that it had evidently been
lodged in the cereDrum since child
hood.
The British Medical Journal, Lon
don. mentions the impaction of a
portion of breech of a gun in the
forehead of man for twelve years,
with subsequent removal and re-
covery.
The Crowbar Case.