15 5
Middle and posterior fossae,. . . . . 4 1
Anterior, middle, and posterior fossae, 1 0
------ ------
96 18 Total, 114.

In a paper on nonmortal fractures of the base of the skull, Lidell
gives an account of 135 cases. MacCormac reports a case of a boy of
nine who was run over by a carriage drawn by a pair of horses. He
suffered fracture of the base of the skull, of the bones of the face,
and of the left ulna, and although suppuration at the points of
fracture ensued, followed by an optic neuritis, an ultimate recovery
was effected. Ball, an Irish surgeon, has collected several instances
in which the base of the skull has been driven in and the condyle of
the jaw impacted in the opening by force transmitted through the lower
maxilla.

The tolerance of foreign bodies in the brain is most marvelous. In the
ancient chronicles of Koenigsberg there is recorded the history of a
man who for fourteen years carried in his head a piece of iron as large
as his finger. After its long lodgment, during which the subject was
little discommoded, it finally came out by the palatine arch. There is
also an old record of a ball lodging near the sella turcica for over a
year, the patient dying suddenly of an entirely different accident.
Fabricius Hildanus relates the history of an injury, in which, without
causing any uncomfortable symptoms, a ball rested between the skull and
dura for six months.

Amatus Lusitanus speaks of a drunken courtesan who was wounded in a
fray with a long, sharp-pointed knife which was driven into the head.
No apparent injury resulted, and death from fever took place eight
years after the reception of the injury. On opening the head a large
piece of knife was found between the skull and dura. It is said that
Benedictus mentions a Greek who was wounded, at the siege of Colchis,
in the right temple by a dart and taken captive by the Turks; he lived
for twenty years in slavery, the wound having completely healed.
Obtaining his liberty, he came to Sidon, and five years after, as he
was washing his face, he was seized by a violent fit of sneezing, and
discharged from one of his nostrils a piece of the dart having an iron
point of considerable length.

In about 1884 there died in the Vienna Hospital a bookbinder of
forty-five, who had always passed as an intelligent man, but who had at
irregular intervals