e slightest evidence of wounds of the
intestines or viscera. A minute postmortem examination was held some
time afterward, the soldier having died by drowning, but the results
were absolutely negative as regards any injury done by the passage of
the ramrod.

Humphreys says that a boy of eleven, while "playing soldier" with
another boy, accidentally fell on a rick-stake. The stake was slightly
curved at its upper part, being 43 inches long and three inches in
circumference, and sharp-pointed at its extremity. As much as 17 1/2
inches entered the body of the lad. The stake entered just in front of
the right spermatic cord, passed beneath Poupart's ligament into the
cavity of the abdomen, traversed the whole cavity across to the left
side; it then entered the thorax by perforating the diaphragm,
displaced the heart by pushing it to the right of the sternum, and
pierced the left lung. It then passed anteriorly under the muscles and
integument in the axillary space, along the upper third of the humerus,
which was extended beyond the head, the external skin not being
ruptured. The stick remained in situ for four hours before attempts at
extraction were made. On account of the displacement of the heart it
was decided not to give chloroform. The boy was held down by four men,
and Humphreys and his assistant made all the traction in their power.
After removal not more than a teaspoonful of blood followed. The heart
still remained displaced, and a lump of intestine about the size of an
orange protruded from the wound and was replaced. The boy made a slow
and uninterrupted recovery, and in six weeks was able to sit up. The
testicle sloughed, but five months later, when the boy was examined, he
was free from pain and able to walk. There was a slight enlargement of
the abdomen and a cicatrix of the wound in the right groin. The right
testicle was absent, and the apex of the heart was displaced about an
inch.

Woodbury reports the case of a girl of fourteen, who fell seven or
eight feet directly upon an erect stake in a cart; the tuberosity was
first struck, and then the stake passed into the anus, up the rectum
for two inches, thence through the rectal wall, and through the body in
an obliquely upward direction. Striking the ribs near the left nipple
it fractured three, and made its exit. The stake was three inches in
circumference, and 27 inches of its length passed into the body, six or
seven inches emerging from the chest. Th