Morton mentions a patient of forty-seven, who was injured in a railroad accident near Phoenixville, Pa.; there was a compound comminuted fracture of the skull involving the left temporal, spheroid, and superior maxillary bones. The side of the head and the ear were considerably lacerated; several teeth were broken, and besides this there was injury to the aura and cerebral substance. There was profound coma for ten days and paralysis of the 1st, 2d, 3d, 4th, 6th, and 7th cranial nerves, particularly affecting the left side of the face. There was scarcely enough blood-supply left to the orbit to maintain life in the globe. The man primarily recovered, but ninety-one days from the injury he died of cerebral abscess.
There is the record of a curious brain-injury in a man of twenty-two, who was struck on the skull by a circular saw. The saw cut directly down into the brain, severing the superior longitudinal sinus, besides tearing a branch of the meningeal artery. The wound was filled with sawdust left by the saw while it was tearing through the parts. After ordinary treatment the man recovered.
Bird reports a compound comminuted fracture of the left temporal region, with loss of bone, together with six drams of brain-substance, which, however, was followed by recovery. Tagert gives an instance of compound depressed fracture of the skull, with loss of brain-substance, in which recovery was effected without operative interference. Ballou, Bartlett, Buckner, Capon, Carmichael, Corban, Maunder and many others, cite instances of cranial fracture and loss of brain-substance, with subsequent recovery. Halsted reports the history of a boy of seventeen, who, while out fowling, had the breech-pin of a shot-gun blown out, the sharp point striking the forehead in the frontal suture, crushing the os frontis, destroying 1 3/4 inches of the longitudinal sinus, and causing severe hemorrhage from both the longitudinal and frontal sinuses. The pin was pulled out by the boy, who washed his own face, and lay down; he soon became semi-comatose, in which condition he remained for some days; but, after operation, he made complete recovery.
Loss of Brain-substance from Cerebral Tumor.--Koser is accredited with reporting results of a postmortem held on a young man of twenty who suffered from a cerebral tumor of considerable duration. It was stated that, although there was a cavity in the brain at least five inches in length, the patient, almost up to the time of death, was possessed of the senses of touch, taste, hearing, and smell, showed considerable control over his locomotor muscles, and could talk. In fact, he was practically discommoded in no other way than by loss of vision, caused by pressure on the optic centers. It was also stated that the retention of memory was remarkable, and, up to within two weeks of his death, the patient was able to memorize poems. The amount of involvement discovered postmortem in cases similar to the preceding is astonishing. At a recent pathologic display in London several remarkable specimens were shown.
Extensive Fractures of the Skull. Jennings mentions an instance of extensive fracture of the skull, 14 pieces of the cranium being found. The patient lived five weeks and two days after the injury, the immediate cause of death being edema of the lungs.
His language was incoherent and full of oaths. Belloste, in his "Hospital Surgeon," states that he had under has care a most dreadful case of a girl of eleven or twelve years, who received 18 or 19 cutlass wounds of the head, each so violent as to chip out pieces of bone; but, notwithstanding her severe injuries, she made recovery. At the Emergency Hospital in Washington, D.C., there was received a negress with at least six gaping wounds of the head, in some cases denuding the periosteum and cutting the cranium. During a debauch the night before she had been engaged in a quarrel with a negro with whom she lived, and was struck by him several times on the head with an axe. She lay all night unconscious, and was discovered the next morning with her hair and clothes and the floor on which she lay drenched with blood.
The ambulance was summoned to take her to the morgue, but on the arrival of the police it was seen that feeble signs of life still existed. On admission to the hospital she was semi-comatose, almost pulseless, cold, and exhibiting all the signs of extreme hemorrhage and shock. Her head was cleaned up, but her condition would not permit of any other treatment than a corrosive-sublimate compress and a bandage of Scultetus. She was taken to the hospital ward, where warmth and stimulants were applied, after which she completely reacted. She progressed so well that it was not deemed advisable to remove the head-bandage until the fourth day, when it was seen that the wounds had almost entirely healed and suppuration was virtually absent. The patient rapidly and completely recovered, and her neighbors, on her return home, could hardly believe that she was the same woman whom, a few days before, they were preparing to take to the morgue.
A serious injury, which is not at all infrequent, is that caused by diving into shallow water, or into a bath from which water has been withdrawn. Curran mentions a British officer in India who, being overheated, stopped at a station bath in which the previous night he had had a plunge, and without examining, took a violent "header" into the tank, confidently expecting to strike from eight to ten feet of water. He dashed his head against the concrete bottom 12 feet below (the water two hours previously having been withdrawn) and crushed his brain and skull into an indistinguishable mass.