rebral Injuries.--The recent advances in brain-surgery have, in a
measure, diminished the interest and wonder of some of the older
instances of major injuries of the cerebral contents with unimportant
after-results, and in reviewing the older cases we must remember that
the recoveries were made under the most unfavorable conditions, and
without the slightest knowledge of all important asepsis and antisepsis.

Penetration or even complete transfixion of the brain is not always
attended with serious symptoms. Dubrisay is accredited with the
description of a man of forty-four, who, with suicidal intent, drove a
dagger ten cm. long and one cm. wide into his brain. He had
deliberately held the dagger in his left hand, and with a mallet in his
right hand struck the steel several blows. When seen two hours later
he claimed that he experienced no pain, and the dagger was sticking out
of his head. For half an hour efforts at extraction were made, but with
no avail. He was placed on the ground and held by two persons while
traction was made with carpenter's pliers. This failing, he was taken
to a coppersmith's, where he was fastened by rings to the ground, and
strong pinchers were placed over the dagger and attached to a chain
which was fastened to a cylinder revolved by steam force. At the
second turn of the cylinder the dagger came out. During all the efforts
at extraction the patient remained perfectly cool and complained of no
pain. A few drops of blood escaped from the wound after the removal of
the dagger, and in a 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 experiments 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.

Warren describes a case of epilepsy of seven months' standing, from
depression of the skull caused by a red hot poker thrown at the
subject's head. Striking the frontal bone just above the orbit, it
entered three inches into the cerebral substance. Kesteven reports the
history of a boy of thirteen who, while holding a fork in his hand,
fell from the top of a load of straw. One of the prongs entered the
head one inch behind and on a line with the lobe of the left ear and
passed upward and slightly backward to almost its entire length. With
some difficulty it was withdrawn by a fellow workman; the point was
bent