ldanus, Vogel, Rhodius, Petit, Guerin, Koler, Peters, Flebbe, and
Stalpart, as authorities for instances of this nature. In one of the
journals there is a description of a man who was wounded by a
broad-sword thrust in the mediastinum. After death it was found that
none of the viscera were wounded, and death was attributed to the fact
that the in-rush of air counterbalancing the pressure within the lungs
left them to their own contractile force, with resultant collapse,
obstruction to the circulation, and death. It is said that Vesalius
demonstrated this condition on the thorax of a pig.

Gooch gives an instance of a boy of thirteen who fell from the top of a
barn upon the sharp prow of a plough, inflicting an oblique wound from
the axilla to below the sternum, slightly above the insertion of the
diaphragm. Several ribs were severed, and the left thoracic cavity was
wholly exposed to view, showing the lungs, diaphragm, and pericardium
all in motion. The lungs soon became gangrenous, and in this horrible
state the patient lived twelve days. One of the curious facts noticed
by the ancient writers was the amelioration of the symptoms caused by
thoracic wounds after hemorrhage from other locations; and naturally,
in the treatment of such injuries, this circumstance was used in
advocacy of depletion. Monro speaks of a gentleman who was wounded in a
duel, and who had all the symptoms of hemothorax; his condition was
immediately relieved by the evacuation of a considerable quantity of
bloody matter with the urine. Swammerdam records a similar case, and
Fabricius ab Aquapendente noticed a case in which the opening in the
thorax showed immediate signs of improvement after the patient voided
large quantities of bloody urine. Glandorp also calls attention to the
foregoing facts. Nicolaus Novocomensis narrates the details of the case
of one of his friends, suffering from a penetrating wound of the
thorax, who was relieved and ultimately cured by a bloody evacuation
with the stool.

There is an extraordinary recovery reported in a boy of fifteen who, by
falling into the machinery of an elevator, was severely injured about
the chest. There were six extensive lacerations, five through the skin
about six inches long, and one through the chest about eight inches
long. The 3d, 4th, 5th, and 6th ribs were fractured and torn apart, and
about an inch of the substance of the 4th rib was lost. Several jagged
fragments were removed; a portion