420 THE BRAIN. 



which an abscess in the anterior lobe of the brain was opened by an 

 incision passing through the cerebral substance, not only without 

 any immediate bad effect, but with great temporary relief to the 

 patient. This was the case of a laborer who was struck on the left 

 side of the forehead by a piece of falling timber, which produced a 

 compound fracture of the skull at this part. One or two pieces of 

 bone afterward became separated and were removed, and the wound 

 subsequently healed. Nine weeks after the accident, however, 

 headache and drowsiness came on ; and the latter symptom, becom- 

 ing rapidly aggravated, soon terminated in complete stupor. At 

 this time, the existence of an abscess being suspected, the cicatrix, 

 together with the adherent portion of the dura mater, was dissected 

 away, several pieces of fractured bone removed, and the surface of 

 the brain exposed. A knife was then passed into the cerebral sub- 

 stance, making a wound one inch in length and half an inch in 

 depth, when the abscess was reached and over two ounces of pus 

 discharged. The patient immediately aroused from his comatose 

 condition, so that he was able to speak ; and in a few days reco- 

 vered, to a very considerable extent, his cheerfulness, intelligence, 

 and appetite. Subsequently, however, the collection of pus re- 

 turned, accompanied by a renewal of the previous symptoms ; and 

 the patient finally died at the end of seven weeks from the time of 

 opening the abscess. 



Another and still more striking instance of recovery from severe 

 injury of the brain is reported by Prof. H. J. Bigelow in the 

 American Journal of Medical Sciences for July, 1850. In this case, a 

 pointed iron bar, three feet and a half in length, and one inch and a 

 quarter in diameter, was driven through the patient's head by the 

 premature blasting of a rock. The bar entered the left side of the 

 face, just in front of the angle of the jaw, and passed obliquely 

 upward, inside the zygomatic arch and through the anterior part 

 of the cranial cavity, emerging from the top of the frontal bone on 

 the median line, just in front of the point of union of the coronal 

 and sagittal sutures. The patient was at first stunned, but soon 

 recovered himself so far as to be able to converse intelligently, rode 

 home in a common cart, and with a little assistance walked up stairs 

 to his room. He became delirious within two days after the acci- 

 dent, and subsequently remained partly delirious and partly coma- 

 tose for about three weeks. He then began to improve, and at the 

 end of rather more than two months from the date of the injury, 

 was able to walk about. At the end of sixteen months he was in 



