nt of accidental
impregnation, quoted from the American Medical Weekly by the Lancet, is
given in brief, not because it bears any semblance of possibility, but
as a curious example from the realms of imagination in medicine.

L. G. Capers of Vicksburg, Miss., relates an incident during the late
Civil War, as follows: A matron and her two daughters, aged fifteen and
seventeen years, filled with the enthusiasm of patriotism, stood ready
to minister to the wounds of their countrymen in their fine residence
near the scene of the battle of R----, May 12, 1863, between a portion
of Grant's army and some Confederates. During the fray a gallant and
noble young friend of the narrator staggered and fell to the earth; at
the same time a piercing cry was heard in the house near by.
Examination of the wounded soldier showed that a bullet had passed
through the scrotum and carried away the left testicle. The same
bullet had apparently penetrated the left side of the abdomen of the
elder young lady, midway between the umbilicus and the anterior
superior spinous process of the ilium, and had become lost in the
abdomen. This daughter suffered an attack of peritonitis, but recovered
in two months under the treatment administered.

Marvelous to relate, just two hundred and seventy-eight days after the
reception of the minie-ball, she was delivered of a fine boy, weighing
8 pounds, to the surprise of herself and the mortification of her
parents and friends. The hymen was intact, and the young mother
strenuously insisted on her virginity and innocence. About three weeks
after this remarkable birth Dr. Capers was called to see the infant,
and the grandmother insisted that there was something wrong with the
child's genitals. Examination showed a rough, swollen, and sensitive
scrotum, containing some hard substance. He operated, and extracted a
smashed and battered minie-ball. The doctor, after some meditation,
theorized in this manner: He concluded that this was the same ball that
had carried away the testicle of his young friend, that had penetrated
the ovary of the young lady, and, with some spermatozoa upon it, had
impregnated her. With this conviction he approached the young man and
told him the circumstances; the soldier appeared skeptical at first,
but consented to visit the young mother; a friendship ensued which soon
ripened into a happy marriage, and the pair had three children, none
resembling, in the same degree as the first, th