while carrying his scythe home, the patient
accidentally fell on the blade; the point passed under the right
axilla, between the 3d and 4th right ribs, horizontally through the
chest, and came out through corresponding ribs of the opposite side,
making a small opening. He fell to the ground and lay still until his
brother came to his assistance; the latter with great forethought and
caution carefully calculated the curvature of the scythe blade, and
thus regulating his direction of tension, successfully withdrew the
instrument. There was but little hemoptysis and the patient soon
recovered. Chelius records an instance of penetration of the chest by a
carriage shaft, with subsequent recovery. Hoyland mentions a man of
twenty-five who was discharging bar-iron from the hold of a ship; in a
stooping position, preparatory to hoisting a bundle on deck, he was
struck by one of the bars which pinned him to the floor of the hold,
penetrating the thorax, and going into the wood of the flooring to the
extent of three inches, requiring the combined efforts of three men to
extract it. The bar had entered posteriorly between the 9th and 10th
ribs of the left side, and had traversed the thorax in an upward and
outward direction, coming out anteriorly between the 5th and 6th ribs,
about an inch below and slightly external to the nipple. There was
little constitutional disturbance, and the man was soon discharged
cured. Brown records a case of impalement in a boy of fourteen. While
running to a fire, he struck the point of the shaft of a carriage,
which passed through his left chest, below the nipple. There was,
strangely, no hemorrhage, and no symptoms of so severe an injury; the
boy recovered.

There is deposited in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons in
London, a mast-pivot, 15 inches in length and weighing between seven
and eight pounds, which had passed obliquely through the body of a
sailor. The specimen is accompanied by a colored picture of the
sufferer himself in two positions. The name of the sailor was Taylor,
and the accident occurred aboard a brig lying in the London docks. One
of Taylor's mates was guiding the pivot of the try-sail into the main
boom, when a tackle gave way. The pivot instantly left the man's hand,
shot through the air point downward striking Taylor above the heart,
passing out lower down posteriorly, and then imbedded itself in the
deck. The unfortunate subject was carried at once to the London