April 17, 1885.] 



SCIENCE. 



313 



Slab No. 4 has nine pairs of hind-foot tracks, 

 with the fore-feet sometimes coinciding, and 

 elsewhere separated at considerable distances. 

 They are in relief, that is, on the under side 



Fifth right feet. 

 Scale }. 



Average stride, 8$ inches; width of trackway, 4| inches. 

 Scale, 1-12. 



of the layer, and resemble Nos. 2 and 3, but 

 smaller ; and the stride is two inches less. 



Thorough search was made among the vast 

 quantities of waste stone in the main quarries, 

 and also in those of Stone Canon adjoining, as 

 well as in the streets of Denver, where these 

 red quartzitic sandstones are largely used for 

 flagging. The scarcity of the tracks is em- 

 phasized by the abundance of raindrop impres- 

 sions. There were also many irregular stellate 

 moulds, left by some crystallization, which a 

 quarrvman mistook for tracks. 



H. W. Parker. 



SUCCESSFUL EXTRACTION OF A BUL- 

 LET FROM THE BRAIN. 



The New-York medical journal of March 28 gives 

 an account of an interesting surgical operation re- 

 cently performed in New York, from which we con- 

 dense the following statement: — 



On the 24th of January, 1884, a healthy young 

 man, Bruno Knorr, nineteen years old, was admitted 

 into one of the wards at Bellevue hospital, suffering 

 from a pistol-shot wound penetrating the brain 

 through the centre of the forehead. The patient 

 was semi-unconscious, and when aroused was irrita- 

 ble, and in answer to all questions simply grunted 



' ja.' It was thus impossible to ascertain the circum- 

 stances of the>ccurrence of the injury. It has since, 

 however, been learned from the patient, that, while 

 lying upon his back, he shot himself with a pistol 

 held in contact with his forehead. There was com- 

 plete loss of motion without loss of sensation on the 

 right side of the body, below the head. There was in- 

 creased sensitiveness on the left side, which was very 

 marked upon the left side of the scalp near the ear. 



Preparatory to the operation, the patient's scalp 

 was shaved. He was then etherized. A flap of 

 gutta-percha tissue was fastened to his forehead to 

 protect his eyes from the antiseptic solution used. 



The bullet-hole in the skull, which was about half 

 an inch in diameter, was then enlarged with a Ron- 

 guer forceps; but during the process a small clot was 

 disturbed, which gave rise to arterial bleeding from 

 beneath a depressed fragment of the skull whose 

 sharp, convex edge had been driven into the brain. 

 Upon the removal of this fragment the arterial hem- 

 orrhage was alarmingly profuse, and it became evi- 

 dent that the patient would speedily bleed to death 

 unless it could be stopped. 



After many unsuccessful attempts, Dr. Fluhrer 

 succeeded in catching the artery with a Langenbeck's 

 artery-forceps, and, while he held the instrument, an 

 assistant attempted to tie the vessel. Unfortunately, 

 during the process the delicate artery was torn, and 

 it was found impossible to reach the remaining por- 

 tion without removing another piece of the skull 

 which covered it. In the mean time, the hemorrhage 

 was so great as to threaten the patient's life. This 

 was partially arrested by an assistant, who passed his 

 finger through the opening in the skull, and com- 

 pressed the artery against the brain, while Dr. Fluh- 

 rer removed a disk of bone sufficiently large to enable 

 the artery to be reached with aPean's forceps. With 

 the aid of two pairs of dissecting-forceps, he succeeded 

 in passing a silk ligature around the artery, and tying 

 it. Upon the removal of the Pean's forceps, however, 

 the pulsations of the artery and brain loosened and 

 threw off the ligature, so that the bleeding became as 

 profuse as before. The vessel from which the blood 

 flowed was found to have been severed near its junc- 

 tion with a large artery, which Dr. Fluhrer now 

 seized below the point of bifurcation. He saw clearly 

 that the short branch could not be tied; and fearing 

 that the slightest movement of the patient's head 

 might tear the delicate vessel from the forceps, and 

 cause an inevitably fatal hemorrhage, he transferred 

 the artery to the grasp of the short and light clamp 

 shown in fig. 1, which could lie in the wound with- 



Fig. 1. — Small artery clamp, actual size. 



out risk of detachment. No further attempt was 

 made to ligature the artery, and the metallic clamp 

 was left in the brain for many days. Two and a half 

 hours had been spent in reaching this stage of the 

 operation. Having arrested the hemorrhage, Dr. 



