ith a bowie-knife nine inches long and three inches wide. The
blade passed through the diaphragm, cut off a portion of the liver, and
severed the descending aorta at a point about the 7th dorsal vertebra;
the soldier lived over three hours after complete division of this
important vessel. Heil reports the case of a man of thirty-two, a
soldier in the Bavarian army, who, in a quarrel in 1812, received a
stab in the right side. The instrument used was a common table-knife,
which was passed between the 5th and 6th ribs, entering the left lung,
and causing copious hemorrhage. The patient recovered in four months,
but suffered from amaurosis which had commenced at the time of the
stab. Some months afterward he contracted pneumonia and was readmitted
to the hospital, dying in 1813. At the postmortem the cicatrix in the
chest was plainly visible, and in the ascending aorta there was seen a
wound, directly in the track of the knife, which was of irregular
border and was occupied by a firm coagulum of blood. The vessel had
been completely penetrated, as, by laying it open, an internal cicatrix
was found corresponding to the other. Fatal hemorrhage had been avoided
in this case by the formation of coagulum in the wound during the
syncope immediately following the stab, possibly aided by extended
exposure to cold.

Sundry Cases.--Sandifort mentions a curious case of coalescence of the
esophagus and aorta, with ulceration and consequent rupture of the
aorta, the hemorrhage proceeding from the stomach at the moment of
rupture.

Heath had a case of injury to the external iliac artery from external
violence, with subsequent obliteration of the vessel. When the patient
was discharged no pulse could be found in the leg.

Dismukes reports a case in which the patient had received 13 wounds,
completely severing the subclavian artery, and, without any medical or
surgical aid, survived the injury two hours.

Illustrative of the degree of hemorrhage which may follow an injury so
slight as that of falling on a needle we cite an instance, reported by
a French authority, of a child who picked up a needle, and, while
running with it to its mother, stumbled and fell, the needle
penetrating the 4th intercostal space, the broadened end of it
remaining outside of the wound. The mother seized the needle between
her teeth and withdrew it, but the child died, before medical aid could
be summoned, from internal hemorrhage, causing pulmonary pressu