A POPULAR FALLACY; OK, A PHYSIOLOGICAL FACT: WHICH IS IT?
By Surgeon-Major Having frequently
tioned in conversation, that heart
War.
Cukban,
read in books
generally spring
or
or
A.M.D.
heard it
casually
men-
and animals shot through the jump into the air ere thev die,
men
inquire into the subject and ascertain,, grounds, physical or physiological, for such an.
X have been induced to
if there be any The result is stated below, and I shall be glad, to bear that this little paper has had the effect of directingattention to the matter, and of eliciting an expression of
assumption.
opinion about it, from officers who have seen more of this kind of injury, than I can pretend to. I myself believe that the impression that obtains regarding gun-shot wounds of this orfnn?for the phenomenon appears to be peculiar to them? is either unfounded or exaggerated, but I have no means of pushing or proving my thesis either way, and as already intimated, the object of this contribution is to elicit rather than afford information. Why such a wound should produce such an effect, or why it. should impart a saltatory rather than a sitting or recumbent tendency to its victim does not readily" appear, but that such a tendency exists is generally believed, and, many of our brethren must, in their pursuit of wild animals, more familiar with or observant of the manner in which.. they die, when struck through the heart, than outsiders, IT think this communication will appear more appropriate in a professional than in a lay paper. Hence my object in submitting it, in this form, to the consideration of tny brethren,, and hoping to disarm all unfriendly criticism by a candid confession of ignorance, I leave the further discussion of the subas
be
ject
in their hands.
That
gun-shot
and
other wounds of the heart do not invari-
prove fatal, that they are occasionally recovered from, is now a well-established physiological fact, and indeed liberties have been taken with impunity, with this ' animi et sanguinis sedes' as Pliny calls it. which would appear, at first to be
ably
all but incredible.
sight,
Illustrations of the former may be found
in Ilenien, Guthrie, and others of the older Military Surgeons. Chelius edited by South contains a good resume of the more modern cases, and I have myself dealt with the matter, front a different point of view, in a communication "On malposition
or Displacement of the Heart," which appeared in the XVtli Number of the Indian Annals of Medical Science. TV these I must refer for further particulars, and turning to the* matter in hand, we will, I think, find on looking over tlier-.' records of cases of assassination, that no such result, as that?' noted above, occurs under the infliction of wounds that are
caused
by the use of the knife or the dagger, as contrasted, with that of the gun or the pistol. Thus, to take a few historical examples, by way of illustration, we may select the notorious instances of Henry the Henry of Navarre?the Duke do Berri and the Duke of
Fourth?Macaulay's
who
were
all, 1 believe, poinarded
Guise
;
and
who,
if 1 mis-remem-
ber not, made no such expiring effort or demonstration a* that contemplated within. Of the assault that wub uiaue-
^26
.
THE INDIAN MEDICAL GAZETTE.
upon Henry, the best account that I am that given by Howell in his Familiar
acquainted with Letters,* and I that books, bearing on these
need
scarcely remind my readers After owsualties, are rarely found in Indian libraries. ?tome prefatory allusions, which we need not reproduce, Howell *ays :?" Going to the Bastile to see his treasure and ammunition l>is (Henry's) coach was stopped by some carters in the street, whereupon one, Ravillac?who had a whole twelve month watched an opportunity to do the act?put his foot boldly coach and with a long knife on one of the wheels of the ?tretched himself over their shoulders, who were in the foot of the coach, and reached the king at the end, and stabbed him right in the left side to.'the heart, and pulling oat the fatal steel, he doubled his thurst. The king with a ruthful voice cried, je suis blesse, * * * * and suddenly the blood issued The regicide villain was apprehended, out of his mouth. and command given that no violence should be offered him, that he might be reserved for the laws and some exquisite tortureIf
we
may infer from this that
the heart
itself
wounded, an inference that appears to me to be fairly warranted by the result, we find that the king made no attempt at rising or jumping, on the contrary he merely exclaimed was
that he
was
wounded, and
we
all know what
the
was
conse-
Mr. Sutherland Edwardsf is the only quence of this wound. for the circumstances under which the Duke de Berri was assassinated, that I have now at hand ; and his
authority
account of the transaction runs as follows :?" After Le Carnaval de Yenise, &e., had been performed, the duchess arose to leave the theatre. Her husband accompanied her to the carriage,
taking leave of her to return to the theatre, when placed his left arm on the duke's left side, pulled him yiolently towards him, and as he held him in his grasp, thrust a dagger through his body. The dagger entered the duke's right side, and the pressure of the assassin's arm, and the force with which the blow was given, were so great, that the weapon went through the lungs, and pierced the heart, a blade of sis inches inflicting a wound nine inches long. ? ###### After begging that his murderer might be forgiven and entreating the duchess not to give way to despair, the Duke breathed his las4; in the arms of the king, who closed his eyes at half past six in the morning." " This story is told in greater detail by M. Guizot, from whose work it is reproduced, aud
was
a man
with
some
Bourgeois not
access
extra embellishment in the " Memoires d'un de Paris" by the author, a medical man, but I have to either of these at present, and the facts are not
gain sayed. Suffice it to say that to jump or spring into the air, on
the Duke
never
attempted
the contrary he had to be carried back on the arms of his attendants, and he was afterwards so much troubled with vomiting, as to be unable to partake of the sacrament. I have, I am sorry to say, mislaid the note I made of Poltrot's successful attack on the Duke of Guise, and I cannot now repair the loss; but if my memory doos not mis-serve me, he died without manifesting any such
tendency, as is here in question, and the hundreds of cattle that are daily slaughtered in this country, under pretty similar conditions, without betraying any similar impulse, favor the
presumption that such a result is not to bo looked for in connexion with wounds that are inflicted by the knife. Let us see if there is now reverse the picture, and any greater reason for
expecting it
in consequence of wounds that are inflicted
the gun. Of the
by
in the mouth of is not
Varia, by
H.
207.
Friswell,p. t The Hiatory of the Opera, vol. II., pp. 180 -I.
of his intelligent; jurors. But. the opinion confined to the regions of fiction, it is, on matter of acceptance, in the realms of fact, and one
the contrary, a I have rarely asked the question without being answered in the affirmative. Why this should be so, I cannot tell, but that it is so, I am sure, and all the papers lately contained an account of the death of Captain Innes, who was shot through the heart as he approached a stockade in Perak, and who sprang into the air, as he received his wound, and then fell down a corpse. Whether this was the case or not, I cannot say, but the fact of its being so announced, without comment or question, implies the existence of a fore-gone conclusion,
the conclusion I have here set myself to cull To do this effectually, I must first give a fevr illustrative examples, and then weigh the evidence they afford,
and
this is
just
to account.
and meanwhile I may be permitted to quote from a Mr. Ruxton,* a traveller in Mexico, who says he saw an Indian who wa? " struck to the heart" with a bullet, " spring into the air" ere he dropt dead. I have rf.ad or heard of similar stories eltewhe e, but cannot now recall the particulars, and must therefore content myself with the few that, have casually com* to
hand since the occurrence,
just
referred to,
again
attracted
" my attention to the question. These are to the effect that ? soldier of the 77th foot, who had some altercation at Hazareebagh in 1862, with a petty Mahomedan trader, about, I believe,
the
price of tobacco, repaired to his barrack, and unpercemiil got possession of his rifle. Returning with it to the trader'# shop in the Sudder Bazar, he deliberately discharged its contents at the man, who was at the time sitting quietly in hit shop. On being struck, he (the trader) plunged forward ami clasped his assailant., who was right opposite him, bjt being through the heart his grasp was only momentary, and h? immediately afterwards." The soldier here referred to was subsequently tried and executed at Allahahad, and my informant was precluded by the action of the police fr.ua following up the enquiry further. Answering my application for some particulars in point, and which were previously promised, Captain Huxham, of H. M.'s 9th regiment, courteously writes as follows :?" Regarding the story I mentioned to tou at Pindee, which occurred as long ago as 1848, when I was at Frankfort-on-the-Maine, during the revolution there, I h ive to say that, while standing looking on at the Austrian troop? I saw one endeavouring to take a strong barricade, of the soldiers jump into the air, drop his rifle, and fall on
shot
fell dead
to his face in front of the comrades who surrounded him. The man was immediately picked up and removed to the rear. .
.
.
quite dead, the bullet from one of the insurgent'* rifles having passed through his heart, and in response to my inquiry as to whether he was dead, one of his attendanti answered Jawohl, freilig durclis, ganz durch unddurch, naturally, shot clean through the heart." "yes, geschofzen" and as I was Shortly after this watching the Pru?sians attacking a very strongly posted barricade, at the end of the principal street of Frankfort, I saw three Prussian He
was
"
Officers fall at the head of their men. I noticed that one of these fell perfectly flatly on to his face, without moving I afterwards saw him brought buck and a hand or foot; asked to be allowed to look at him. I found that he wa? through the brain, and I was certainly very much struck at the time, with the different effects these two shots had on
shot,
far its
respective victims." they are kuown to
as
So much for the facts of the case, aa me, let us now turn and inquire into
physiology.
Of this little need be said, not much indeed is known in connexion with it, with certainty, and I have not by me at the a
present *
1, 1876.
exclusively
their
wide-spread existence of such a belief there can be 110 doubt, and this remark is as applicable to the beast as it is to the human being. It is a stale illustration with a certain class of ?ensation novel writers, and even Hood has not disdained its use
[Mat
#
single book
on
the
subject
to
which I
Adventure! in Mexioo and the Rocky Mountain?,
might
refer
Mat 1,
A POPULAR FALLACY.
If.76.]
I have, indeed, entered upon the disrather for the purpose of eliciting the views of others, than with any hope of being able to throw much light upon it myself, and my own personal experience of auch casualties is certainly not favorable to the opinion that for advice
or
guidance.
cussion of the
question,
persons s?iot through the heart are more disposed than others to spring into the air ere they die. The two men of the 20th Uative Infantry, who fell in the advance of their corps to the Black Mountain in 1868, were shot, the one through the head, and the other through the heart, and neither of them, as far as I could learn on the spot, evinced any tendency to imitate the examples noted above.* Of course this incident does not tell much either way, as other vital structures may be paralysed at the same time, and fatal shock or syncope is no respecter of forms. On the other hand Sleemanf relates on the authority
Begum Sumroo and her to destroy themselves rather than fall into the hands of their infuriated soldiery? were endeavouring to escape into our territory from Sirdhana) the latter finding the pursuit too hot for bim, placed a pistol to his head and jumped several feet out of the saddle, ere he fell, and I am told that wild animals frequently spring forward when shot through the brain. Whether this is so, or not, I cannot say from my own knowledge, but the greater nervous energy of the latter would naturally point it out as more adapted for this process than the heart, and it must, I fear, be confessed that, notwithstanding all that has been said or supposed on the matter, the belief is, in either case, the result of morbid fancy or an unreasoning faith. History tells us that a it is easier to extend than to contract the credulity of the multitude ; and a belief in denionology, miracles, and witchcraft, has survived the assaults of Berkeley, Middleton, and Locke. Though sneered at in the days of the Dutchman,J the efficacy of the regal touch was again revived in the reign of Anne,? and many still hold by the myths of Merlin and St. George. Clairvoyance and table-turning are fashionable amusements, and may hereafter become objects of popular superstitions. "There that we know in the present, is no nation," says a late writer,|| of an eye witness, that when the german husband?who had agreed
"
read of in the past, so cultivated as not to retain many epots from the dark ages of its infancy and ignorance" and many practices, that civilization is now sweeping away, may claim the prescription of a pre-historic antiquity.** All or
* Sir Charles Napier describes two very similar cases that occurred in his presence at Corunna, in neither of which was there any such manifestations as is here contemplated. See the first Vol. of his " Life and Opinions by his brother Sir William Napier." f Rambles and Recollections. Macaulay's History of England (1855, page 4178-481.) ? Boswell's Life of Johnson, page 7. || J. A. Farrer on "Comparative Folk Lore" in tho Cornhill Magazine for January 1876, page 59. ** I allude here to the practices of suttee, infanticide, scalping and bundling, of which I find no account in the above, and which were, by no means peculiar to the places or people usually associated with them. This is not, however, the place to go into a history of either, and my object in alluding to them at all, in this place, is to show by contrast, that the belief in their origin, distribution, and locality, is, as it is accepted by many in the present day, entirely erroneous. Thus Mr. Arnold shows in a learned note to his Administration of Lord Dalhousie, that the former is of Scythic origin, and Dr. Thomson, 8nd Captains Fisbourne and Langley, are my authorities for saying, that infanticide Zealand, China, and Sindh. As to 'scalping' the Abbe prevailed in New Great Deserts of North America, Vol I, page 358, Domeneck, The the decalvarc of the ancient Germans, the Capillo* et Cutem of the Visigoths, and the Annals of ttrahere of the Code Flude, which and the Franks still scalped about A D. 879, prove that the Anglo-Saxons modern the American practice is traceable to Europe And as, (he adds) and Asia, so may it be found in Africa, where aught of f-rocity is rarely C ontrary wise, teste Burton, City of the Saints, page 137-142 wanting "the Bundling of Wales and of New England in a former day is not unknown to the N. A. Indians, and many think little of that praequitutio matrimonii, which goes by the name ot Fanny Wri^htism or free Loveism, in the eastern parts of the New World; several tribes make trial, like the Highlanders before the reign of James the Fifth, of their wives for there are few nations amongst whom this a certain time, and practice originating in a natural desire, not to make a leap in the dark,' cannot be traced. Traces of it, or of something worse perhaps, may be found in Japan, Tartary, Thibet, Khiva and elsewhere, and the curious reader may refer for illustrations in point to Hodgson's A visit to Nagasaki and Hakodate, page 250, to Alcock's The Capital of the Tycoon, Vol. I, jage 250, Yule's Marco Polo, 1st lid., Vol. I, page 189-191, Cooper'i
j
3uotes
"
BY W. CUERAN.
t.liis, nnd much
227
of like import that any scholar mny from tlie recesses of his inward consciousstill is ness, shows that the critical faculty sorely in need of cultivation among us, nnd speaking for myself alone, I can freely say, that I am not aware of any feature in either tha
conjure up
for
more
himself,
anatomy or physiology of the heart that could give a seientifio sanction to the assumption here referred to. To say that it is a highly organized and sensitive structure is only to beg the question, inasmuch as it possesses no monoof these attributes, and the conditions under which officer* in, or wild animals struck through the heart, that is, in states of great exertion or excitement, as they nra leading on their men or endeavouring to escane from their
poly are
wounded
to account sufficiently for this phenoto other more technical or scientific* But as intimated already, I am in the hands of causes. my readers; and simply contenting myself with stating that tha belief here referred to, approximates more in my opinion, to the first than to the second item of my heading, I will leave it? pursuers, appear menon, without
to
me
resorting
further consideration for 'heir ingenuity or curiosity. I may as well ask another question, as I am in the veitt and I shall feel grateful for any or such information on tha
point, as my readers may be pleased to supply. The latter the medium of this journal, may be imparted either through or it can be addressed to the sweet place named below as may be preferred, and for such as favor me with a letter, I will at
promise the courtesy of a thankful acknowledgment. question refers to the self-treatment of calculous formation in this country, and is based on some particulars about tha sufferings from that disorder, of a Frenchman, whose nam?
least The
word in many homes in India. of the well-known General Martine, tha founder of La Martiniere at Lucknow, and I believe, at Calcutta, who "Came to India, a private soldier, and died a has
become
Describing
a
the
household
career
" Major-General." Mr. J. Baillie Frascrff says for fifteen years before his death, he (M. Martine) was greatly afflicted with the stone, and the remarkable means by which, with tha exertion of indomitable perseverance and the firm endurance of much pain for more than twelve months he relieved himself, are facts well known to medical men. But the experiment was not calculated to succeed a second time, and the complaint gradually returning terminated his life, in the year 1800, at the age of sixty-eight." The question I wish to ask is, what
tlie experiment here referred were the remarkable means and to, and is there any instance on record of a man, or a woman either, for 'tis as easy for the one as 'tis for the other, performing lithotrity on him or herself. Self-lithotomy as I regard though the
perineum is impracticable, as well from the situation as from complexity of the tissues involved, but I see no absolute or insuperable objection to the other, either on physical or physiological grounds, and the cutting on the gripe" was formerly a common operation in this country. It exists still, I am. told, in some parts of the Himalayas nnd in Eajpootnna, and old HonighbergerJJ says he cured a Greek merchant at who was greatly afflicted with the stone durCairo, ing a period of forty years" by administering to him (for a period of six weeks) diluted muriatic acid." It may be questioned, however, whether this was a case of stone at all, and Air. Frnser, clearly points to the use of other than internal remedies in the quotation given above. The facility with which stones are extracted in this country, the comuarative safety of the operation, the impatience of the people under restraint, &c., have withdrawn attention from
the
"
"
"
Travels of a Pioneer of Commerce, and Abbott s Narrative of a to Khiva, Vol, II, page 26, Appendix; Cum Muhis Aliis. tt A Military Memoir of Lieutenant Colonel James Skinner, By J. Baillie Praser, Esq., London, 1851, p. 56. tt 1'hirty-flve years in the East. By John Martin ?-7. pp.
Journey o
?.
HoniphhergMj
128
THE INTDTAN MEDICAL GAZETTE.
otlier modes of treatment, and nil my endeavours to procure on the diameter or prevalence of calculous disorder, as it obtains among horses, cattle, &c., in India have
information
hitherto proved abortive. Peshawar, March 28th, 1876.
[May 1,
1876.
By Surgeon-Major Having frequently
tioned in conversation, that heart
War.
Cukban,
read in books
generally spring
or
or
A.M.D.
heard it
casually
men-
and animals shot through the jump into the air ere thev die,
men
inquire into the subject and ascertain,, grounds, physical or physiological, for such an.
X have been induced to
if there be any The result is stated below, and I shall be glad, to bear that this little paper has had the effect of directingattention to the matter, and of eliciting an expression of
assumption.
opinion about it, from officers who have seen more of this kind of injury, than I can pretend to. I myself believe that the impression that obtains regarding gun-shot wounds of this orfnn?for the phenomenon appears to be peculiar to them? is either unfounded or exaggerated, but I have no means of pushing or proving my thesis either way, and as already intimated, the object of this contribution is to elicit rather than afford information. Why such a wound should produce such an effect, or why it. should impart a saltatory rather than a sitting or recumbent tendency to its victim does not readily" appear, but that such a tendency exists is generally believed, and, many of our brethren must, in their pursuit of wild animals, more familiar with or observant of the manner in which.. they die, when struck through the heart, than outsiders, IT think this communication will appear more appropriate in a professional than in a lay paper. Hence my object in submitting it, in this form, to the consideration of tny brethren,, and hoping to disarm all unfriendly criticism by a candid confession of ignorance, I leave the further discussion of the subas
be
ject
in their hands.
That
gun-shot
and
other wounds of the heart do not invari-
prove fatal, that they are occasionally recovered from, is now a well-established physiological fact, and indeed liberties have been taken with impunity, with this ' animi et sanguinis sedes' as Pliny calls it. which would appear, at first to be
ably
all but incredible.
sight,
Illustrations of the former may be found
in Ilenien, Guthrie, and others of the older Military Surgeons. Chelius edited by South contains a good resume of the more modern cases, and I have myself dealt with the matter, front a different point of view, in a communication "On malposition
or Displacement of the Heart," which appeared in the XVtli Number of the Indian Annals of Medical Science. TV these I must refer for further particulars, and turning to the* matter in hand, we will, I think, find on looking over tlier-.' records of cases of assassination, that no such result, as that?' noted above, occurs under the infliction of wounds that are
caused
by the use of the knife or the dagger, as contrasted, with that of the gun or the pistol. Thus, to take a few historical examples, by way of illustration, we may select the notorious instances of Henry the Henry of Navarre?the Duke do Berri and the Duke of
Fourth?Macaulay's
who
were
all, 1 believe, poinarded
Guise
;
and
who,
if 1 mis-remem-
ber not, made no such expiring effort or demonstration a* that contemplated within. Of the assault that wub uiaue-
^26
.
THE INDIAN MEDICAL GAZETTE.
upon Henry, the best account that I am that given by Howell in his Familiar
acquainted with Letters,* and I that books, bearing on these
need
scarcely remind my readers After owsualties, are rarely found in Indian libraries. ?tome prefatory allusions, which we need not reproduce, Howell *ays :?" Going to the Bastile to see his treasure and ammunition l>is (Henry's) coach was stopped by some carters in the street, whereupon one, Ravillac?who had a whole twelve month watched an opportunity to do the act?put his foot boldly coach and with a long knife on one of the wheels of the ?tretched himself over their shoulders, who were in the foot of the coach, and reached the king at the end, and stabbed him right in the left side to.'the heart, and pulling oat the fatal steel, he doubled his thurst. The king with a ruthful voice cried, je suis blesse, * * * * and suddenly the blood issued The regicide villain was apprehended, out of his mouth. and command given that no violence should be offered him, that he might be reserved for the laws and some exquisite tortureIf
we
may infer from this that
the heart
itself
wounded, an inference that appears to me to be fairly warranted by the result, we find that the king made no attempt at rising or jumping, on the contrary he merely exclaimed was
that he
was
wounded, and
we
all know what
the
was
conse-
Mr. Sutherland Edwardsf is the only quence of this wound. for the circumstances under which the Duke de Berri was assassinated, that I have now at hand ; and his
authority
account of the transaction runs as follows :?" After Le Carnaval de Yenise, &e., had been performed, the duchess arose to leave the theatre. Her husband accompanied her to the carriage,
taking leave of her to return to the theatre, when placed his left arm on the duke's left side, pulled him yiolently towards him, and as he held him in his grasp, thrust a dagger through his body. The dagger entered the duke's right side, and the pressure of the assassin's arm, and the force with which the blow was given, were so great, that the weapon went through the lungs, and pierced the heart, a blade of sis inches inflicting a wound nine inches long. ? ###### After begging that his murderer might be forgiven and entreating the duchess not to give way to despair, the Duke breathed his las4; in the arms of the king, who closed his eyes at half past six in the morning." " This story is told in greater detail by M. Guizot, from whose work it is reproduced, aud
was
a man
with
some
Bourgeois not
access
extra embellishment in the " Memoires d'un de Paris" by the author, a medical man, but I have to either of these at present, and the facts are not
gain sayed. Suffice it to say that to jump or spring into the air, on
the Duke
never
attempted
the contrary he had to be carried back on the arms of his attendants, and he was afterwards so much troubled with vomiting, as to be unable to partake of the sacrament. I have, I am sorry to say, mislaid the note I made of Poltrot's successful attack on the Duke of Guise, and I cannot now repair the loss; but if my memory doos not mis-serve me, he died without manifesting any such
tendency, as is here in question, and the hundreds of cattle that are daily slaughtered in this country, under pretty similar conditions, without betraying any similar impulse, favor the
presumption that such a result is not to bo looked for in connexion with wounds that are inflicted by the knife. Let us see if there is now reverse the picture, and any greater reason for
expecting it
in consequence of wounds that are inflicted
the gun. Of the
by
in the mouth of is not
Varia, by
H.
207.
Friswell,p. t The Hiatory of the Opera, vol. II., pp. 180 -I.
of his intelligent; jurors. But. the opinion confined to the regions of fiction, it is, on matter of acceptance, in the realms of fact, and one
the contrary, a I have rarely asked the question without being answered in the affirmative. Why this should be so, I cannot tell, but that it is so, I am sure, and all the papers lately contained an account of the death of Captain Innes, who was shot through the heart as he approached a stockade in Perak, and who sprang into the air, as he received his wound, and then fell down a corpse. Whether this was the case or not, I cannot say, but the fact of its being so announced, without comment or question, implies the existence of a fore-gone conclusion,
the conclusion I have here set myself to cull To do this effectually, I must first give a fevr illustrative examples, and then weigh the evidence they afford,
and
this is
just
to account.
and meanwhile I may be permitted to quote from a Mr. Ruxton,* a traveller in Mexico, who says he saw an Indian who wa? " struck to the heart" with a bullet, " spring into the air" ere he dropt dead. I have rf.ad or heard of similar stories eltewhe e, but cannot now recall the particulars, and must therefore content myself with the few that, have casually com* to
hand since the occurrence,
just
referred to,
again
attracted
" my attention to the question. These are to the effect that ? soldier of the 77th foot, who had some altercation at Hazareebagh in 1862, with a petty Mahomedan trader, about, I believe,
the
price of tobacco, repaired to his barrack, and unpercemiil got possession of his rifle. Returning with it to the trader'# shop in the Sudder Bazar, he deliberately discharged its contents at the man, who was at the time sitting quietly in hit shop. On being struck, he (the trader) plunged forward ami clasped his assailant., who was right opposite him, bjt being through the heart his grasp was only momentary, and h? immediately afterwards." The soldier here referred to was subsequently tried and executed at Allahahad, and my informant was precluded by the action of the police fr.ua following up the enquiry further. Answering my application for some particulars in point, and which were previously promised, Captain Huxham, of H. M.'s 9th regiment, courteously writes as follows :?" Regarding the story I mentioned to tou at Pindee, which occurred as long ago as 1848, when I was at Frankfort-on-the-Maine, during the revolution there, I h ive to say that, while standing looking on at the Austrian troop? I saw one endeavouring to take a strong barricade, of the soldiers jump into the air, drop his rifle, and fall on
shot
fell dead
to his face in front of the comrades who surrounded him. The man was immediately picked up and removed to the rear. .
.
.
quite dead, the bullet from one of the insurgent'* rifles having passed through his heart, and in response to my inquiry as to whether he was dead, one of his attendanti answered Jawohl, freilig durclis, ganz durch unddurch, naturally, shot clean through the heart." "yes, geschofzen" and as I was Shortly after this watching the Pru?sians attacking a very strongly posted barricade, at the end of the principal street of Frankfort, I saw three Prussian He
was
"
Officers fall at the head of their men. I noticed that one of these fell perfectly flatly on to his face, without moving I afterwards saw him brought buck and a hand or foot; asked to be allowed to look at him. I found that he wa? through the brain, and I was certainly very much struck at the time, with the different effects these two shots had on
shot,
far its
respective victims." they are kuown to
as
So much for the facts of the case, aa me, let us now turn and inquire into
physiology.
Of this little need be said, not much indeed is known in connexion with it, with certainty, and I have not by me at the a
present *
1, 1876.
exclusively
their
wide-spread existence of such a belief there can be 110 doubt, and this remark is as applicable to the beast as it is to the human being. It is a stale illustration with a certain class of ?ensation novel writers, and even Hood has not disdained its use
[Mat
#
single book
on
the
subject
to
which I
Adventure! in Mexioo and the Rocky Mountain?,
might
refer
Mat 1,
A POPULAR FALLACY.
If.76.]
I have, indeed, entered upon the disrather for the purpose of eliciting the views of others, than with any hope of being able to throw much light upon it myself, and my own personal experience of auch casualties is certainly not favorable to the opinion that for advice
or
guidance.
cussion of the
question,
persons s?iot through the heart are more disposed than others to spring into the air ere they die. The two men of the 20th Uative Infantry, who fell in the advance of their corps to the Black Mountain in 1868, were shot, the one through the head, and the other through the heart, and neither of them, as far as I could learn on the spot, evinced any tendency to imitate the examples noted above.* Of course this incident does not tell much either way, as other vital structures may be paralysed at the same time, and fatal shock or syncope is no respecter of forms. On the other hand Sleemanf relates on the authority
Begum Sumroo and her to destroy themselves rather than fall into the hands of their infuriated soldiery? were endeavouring to escape into our territory from Sirdhana) the latter finding the pursuit too hot for bim, placed a pistol to his head and jumped several feet out of the saddle, ere he fell, and I am told that wild animals frequently spring forward when shot through the brain. Whether this is so, or not, I cannot say from my own knowledge, but the greater nervous energy of the latter would naturally point it out as more adapted for this process than the heart, and it must, I fear, be confessed that, notwithstanding all that has been said or supposed on the matter, the belief is, in either case, the result of morbid fancy or an unreasoning faith. History tells us that a it is easier to extend than to contract the credulity of the multitude ; and a belief in denionology, miracles, and witchcraft, has survived the assaults of Berkeley, Middleton, and Locke. Though sneered at in the days of the Dutchman,J the efficacy of the regal touch was again revived in the reign of Anne,? and many still hold by the myths of Merlin and St. George. Clairvoyance and table-turning are fashionable amusements, and may hereafter become objects of popular superstitions. "There that we know in the present, is no nation," says a late writer,|| of an eye witness, that when the german husband?who had agreed
"
read of in the past, so cultivated as not to retain many epots from the dark ages of its infancy and ignorance" and many practices, that civilization is now sweeping away, may claim the prescription of a pre-historic antiquity.** All or
* Sir Charles Napier describes two very similar cases that occurred in his presence at Corunna, in neither of which was there any such manifestations as is here contemplated. See the first Vol. of his " Life and Opinions by his brother Sir William Napier." f Rambles and Recollections. Macaulay's History of England (1855, page 4178-481.) ? Boswell's Life of Johnson, page 7. || J. A. Farrer on "Comparative Folk Lore" in tho Cornhill Magazine for January 1876, page 59. ** I allude here to the practices of suttee, infanticide, scalping and bundling, of which I find no account in the above, and which were, by no means peculiar to the places or people usually associated with them. This is not, however, the place to go into a history of either, and my object in alluding to them at all, in this place, is to show by contrast, that the belief in their origin, distribution, and locality, is, as it is accepted by many in the present day, entirely erroneous. Thus Mr. Arnold shows in a learned note to his Administration of Lord Dalhousie, that the former is of Scythic origin, and Dr. Thomson, 8nd Captains Fisbourne and Langley, are my authorities for saying, that infanticide Zealand, China, and Sindh. As to 'scalping' the Abbe prevailed in New Great Deserts of North America, Vol I, page 358, Domeneck, The the decalvarc of the ancient Germans, the Capillo* et Cutem of the Visigoths, and the Annals of ttrahere of the Code Flude, which and the Franks still scalped about A D. 879, prove that the Anglo-Saxons modern the American practice is traceable to Europe And as, (he adds) and Asia, so may it be found in Africa, where aught of f-rocity is rarely C ontrary wise, teste Burton, City of the Saints, page 137-142 wanting "the Bundling of Wales and of New England in a former day is not unknown to the N. A. Indians, and many think little of that praequitutio matrimonii, which goes by the name ot Fanny Wri^htism or free Loveism, in the eastern parts of the New World; several tribes make trial, like the Highlanders before the reign of James the Fifth, of their wives for there are few nations amongst whom this a certain time, and practice originating in a natural desire, not to make a leap in the dark,' cannot be traced. Traces of it, or of something worse perhaps, may be found in Japan, Tartary, Thibet, Khiva and elsewhere, and the curious reader may refer for illustrations in point to Hodgson's A visit to Nagasaki and Hakodate, page 250, to Alcock's The Capital of the Tycoon, Vol. I, jage 250, Yule's Marco Polo, 1st lid., Vol. I, page 189-191, Cooper'i
j
3uotes
"
BY W. CUERAN.
t.liis, nnd much
227
of like import that any scholar mny from tlie recesses of his inward consciousstill is ness, shows that the critical faculty sorely in need of cultivation among us, nnd speaking for myself alone, I can freely say, that I am not aware of any feature in either tha
conjure up
for
more
himself,
anatomy or physiology of the heart that could give a seientifio sanction to the assumption here referred to. To say that it is a highly organized and sensitive structure is only to beg the question, inasmuch as it possesses no monoof these attributes, and the conditions under which officer* in, or wild animals struck through the heart, that is, in states of great exertion or excitement, as they nra leading on their men or endeavouring to escane from their
poly are
wounded
to account sufficiently for this phenoto other more technical or scientific* But as intimated already, I am in the hands of causes. my readers; and simply contenting myself with stating that tha belief here referred to, approximates more in my opinion, to the first than to the second item of my heading, I will leave it? pursuers, appear menon, without
to
me
resorting
further consideration for 'heir ingenuity or curiosity. I may as well ask another question, as I am in the veitt and I shall feel grateful for any or such information on tha
point, as my readers may be pleased to supply. The latter the medium of this journal, may be imparted either through or it can be addressed to the sweet place named below as may be preferred, and for such as favor me with a letter, I will at
promise the courtesy of a thankful acknowledgment. question refers to the self-treatment of calculous formation in this country, and is based on some particulars about tha sufferings from that disorder, of a Frenchman, whose nam?
least The
word in many homes in India. of the well-known General Martine, tha founder of La Martiniere at Lucknow, and I believe, at Calcutta, who "Came to India, a private soldier, and died a has
become
Describing
a
the
household
career
" Major-General." Mr. J. Baillie Frascrff says for fifteen years before his death, he (M. Martine) was greatly afflicted with the stone, and the remarkable means by which, with tha exertion of indomitable perseverance and the firm endurance of much pain for more than twelve months he relieved himself, are facts well known to medical men. But the experiment was not calculated to succeed a second time, and the complaint gradually returning terminated his life, in the year 1800, at the age of sixty-eight." The question I wish to ask is, what
tlie experiment here referred were the remarkable means and to, and is there any instance on record of a man, or a woman either, for 'tis as easy for the one as 'tis for the other, performing lithotrity on him or herself. Self-lithotomy as I regard though the
perineum is impracticable, as well from the situation as from complexity of the tissues involved, but I see no absolute or insuperable objection to the other, either on physical or physiological grounds, and the cutting on the gripe" was formerly a common operation in this country. It exists still, I am. told, in some parts of the Himalayas nnd in Eajpootnna, and old HonighbergerJJ says he cured a Greek merchant at who was greatly afflicted with the stone durCairo, ing a period of forty years" by administering to him (for a period of six weeks) diluted muriatic acid." It may be questioned, however, whether this was a case of stone at all, and Air. Frnser, clearly points to the use of other than internal remedies in the quotation given above. The facility with which stones are extracted in this country, the comuarative safety of the operation, the impatience of the people under restraint, &c., have withdrawn attention from
the
"
"
"
Travels of a Pioneer of Commerce, and Abbott s Narrative of a to Khiva, Vol, II, page 26, Appendix; Cum Muhis Aliis. tt A Military Memoir of Lieutenant Colonel James Skinner, By J. Baillie Praser, Esq., London, 1851, p. 56. tt 1'hirty-flve years in the East. By John Martin ?-7. pp.
Journey o
?.
HoniphhergMj
128
THE INTDTAN MEDICAL GAZETTE.
otlier modes of treatment, and nil my endeavours to procure on the diameter or prevalence of calculous disorder, as it obtains among horses, cattle, &c., in India have
information
hitherto proved abortive. Peshawar, March 28th, 1876.
[May 1,
1876.
