d he
believed it himself, that there was no foreign body in the wound; but
on probing it I easily recognized the lower edge of a hard metallic
substance at a depth of about one inch posteriorly from the orifice of
the sinus. Being unable to obtain any reliable information as to the
probable size or shape of the object, I cautiously made several
attempts to remove it through a slightly enlarged opening, but without
success. I therefore continued the incision along the side of the nose
to the nostril, thus laying open the right nasal cavity; then, seizing
the foreign body with a pair of strong forceps, I with difficulty
removed the complete breech-pin of a Chinese gun. Its size and shape
are accurately represented by the accompanying drawing. The breech-pin
measures a little over three inches in length, and weighs 21 ounces, or
75.6 grams. It had evidently lain at the back of the orbit, inclined
upward and slightly backward from its point of entrance, at an angle of
about 45 degrees. On its removal the headache was at once relieved and
did not return. In ten days the wound was perfectly healed and the
patient went back to his work. A somewhat similar case, but which
terminated fatally, is recorded in the American Journal of the Medical
Sciences of July, 1882."

The extent of permanent injury done by foreign bodies in the orbit is
variable. In some instances the most extensive wound is followed by the
happiest result, while in others vision is entirely destroyed by a
minor injury.

Carter reports a case in which a hat-peg 3 3/10 inches long and about
1/4 inch in diameter (upon one end of which was a knob nearly 1/2 inch
in diameter) was impacted in the orbit for from ten to twenty days, and
during this time the patient was not aware of the fact. Recovery
followed its extraction, the vision and movements of the eye being
unimpaired.

According to the Philosophical Transactions a laborer thrust a long
lath with great violence into the inner canthus of the left eye of his
fellow workman, Edward Roberts. The lath broke off short, leaving a
piece two inches long, 1/2 inch wide, and 1/4 inch thick, in situ.
Roberts rode about a mile to the surgery of Mr. Justinian Morse, who
extracted it with much difficulty; recovery followed, together with
restoration of the sight and muscular action. The lath was supposed to
have passed behind the eyeball. Collette speaks of an instance in which
186 pieces of glass were extracted from the