106 WILD SPORTS OF THE WEST. 



instance of a bullet lodging in what is usually con- 

 sidered a mortal place, and failing to occasion death, 

 is extracted from a scientific periodical.* 



" A buck, that was remarkably fat and healthy in 

 condition, in August, 1816, was killed in Bradbury Park, 

 and on opening him, it was discovered, that at some 

 distant time he had been shot in the heart, a ball being 

 found in a cyst in the substance of that viscus, about 

 two inches from the apex. The surface of the cyst 

 had a whitish appearance ; the ball weighed two hundred 

 and ninety-two grains, and was quite flat. Mr. 

 Richardson, the park-keeper, who opened the animal, 

 is of opinion the ball had struck some hard substance 

 before entering the body of the deer. That the animal 

 should subsist long after receiving this ball, is endea- 

 voured to be accounted for from the instance of a soldier, 

 who survived forty-nine hours after receiving a bayonet 

 wound in the heart : however, the recovery from a 

 gun-shot wound in an animal inferior to man can, in 

 no respect, materially alter the importance of the fact, 

 and of the great extent to which this vital organ may 

 sustain injury from external violence." 



* The Edinburgh Medical Journal. 



