o a gentleman while
engaged in the chase of elephants, and which, I apprehend, has few
parallels in pathological experience. Lieutenant GERARD FRETZ, of the
Ceylon Rifle Regiment, whilst firing at an elephant in the vicinity of
Fort MacDonald, in Oovah, was wounded in the face by the bursting of his
fowling-piece, on the 22nd January, 1828. He was then about thirty-two
years of age. On raising him, it was found that part of the breech of
the gun and about two inches of the barrel had been driven through the
frontal sinus, at the junction of the nose and forehead. It had sunk
almost perpendicularly till the iron-plate called "the tail-pin," by
which the barrel is made fast to the stock by a screw, had descended
through the palate, carrying with it the screw, one extremity of which
had forced itself into the right nostril, where it was discernible
externally, whilst the headed end lay in contact with his tongue. To
extract the jagged mass of iron thus sunk in the ethmoidal and
sphenoidal cells was found hopelessly impracticable; but, strange to
tell, after the inflammation subsided, Mr. FRETZ recovered rapidly; his
general health was unimpaired, and he returned to his regiment with
this, singular appendage firmly embedded behind the bones of his face.
He took his turn of duty as usual, attained the command of his company,
participated in all the enjoyments of the mess-room, and died _eight
years afterwards_, on the 1st of April, 1836, not from any consequences
of this fearful wound, but from fever and inflammation brought on by
other causes.

So little was he apparently inconvenienced by the presence of the
strange body in his palate that he was accustomed with his finger
partially to undo the screw, which but for its extreme length he might
altogether have withdrawn. To enable this to be done, and possibly to
assist by this means the extraction of the breech itself through the
original orifice (which never entirely closed), an attempt was made in
1835 to take off a portion of the screw with a file; but, after having
cut it three parts through the operation was interrupted, chiefly owing
to the carelessness and indifference of Capt. FRETZ, whose death
occurred before the attempt could be resumed. The piece of iron, on
being removed after his decease, was found to measure 2-3/4 inches in
length, and weighed two scruples more than two ounces and three
quarters. A cast of the breech and screw now forms No. 2790 amongst the