the
right auricle. Curran mentions the case of a soldier who, in 1809, was
wounded by a bullet which entered his body to the left of the sternum,
between the 2d and 3d ribs. He was insensible a half hour, and was
carried aboard a fighting ship crowded with sailors. There was little
hemorrhage from his wound, and he survived fourteen days. At the
postmortem examination some interesting facts were revealed. It was
found that the right ventricle was transversely opened for about an
inch, the ball having penetrated its anterior surface, near the origin
of the pulmonary artery. The ball was found loose in the pericardium,
where it had fallen during the necropsy. There was a circular lacerated
opening in the tricuspid valve, and the ball must have been in the
right auricle during the fourteen days in which the man lived. Vite
mentions an example of remarkable tenacity of life after reception of a
cardiac wound, the subject living four days after a knife-wound
penetrating the chest into the pericardial sac and passing through the
left ventricle of the heart into the opposite wall. Boone speaks of a
gunshot wound in which death was postponed until the thirteenth day.
Bullock mentions a case of gunshot wound in which the ball was found
lodged in the cavity of the ventricle four days and eighteen hours
after infliction of the wound. Carnochan describes a penetrating wound
of the heart in a subject in whom life had been protracted eleven days.
After death the bullet was found buried and encysted in the heart.
Holly reports a case of pistol-shot wound through the right ventricle,
septum, and aorta, with the ball in the left ventricle. There was
apparent recovery in fourteen days and sudden death on the fifty-fifth
day.

Hamilton gives an instance of a shoemaker sixty-three years old who,
while carrying a bundle, fell with rupture of the heart and lived
several minutes. On postmortem examination an opening in the heart was
found large enough to admit a blowpipe. Noble speaks of duration of
life for five and a half days after rupture of the heart; and there are
instances on record in which life has been prolonged for thirteen hours
and for fifty-three hours after a similar injury. Glazebrook reports
the case of a colored man of thirty, of powerful physique, who was
admitted to the Freedmen's Hospital, Washington, D.C., at 12.30 A.M.,
on February 5, 1895. Upon examination by the surgeons, an incised
wound was discovered one inch ab