MAMMALIA. 
[Chaf. IY. 
NOTE. 
Amongst extraordinary recoveries from desperate wounds, I 
venture to record here an instance which occurred in Ceylon 
to a gentleman while engaged in the chase of elephants, and 
which, I apprehend, has few parallels in pathological experience. 
Lieutenant Gerard Fretz, of the Ceylon Rifle Regiment, whilst 
firing at an elephant in the vicinity of Fort MacDonald, in 
Oovah, was wounded in the face by the bursting of his fowling- 
piece, on the 22nd January, 1828. He was then about thirty- 
two years of age. On raising him, it was found that part of 
the breech of the gun and about two inches of the barrel had 
been driven through the frontal sinus, at the junction of the 
nose and forehead. It had sunk almost perpendicularly till 
the iron-plate called " the tail-pin," by which the barrel is 
made fast to the stock by a screw, had descended through the 
palate, carrying with it the screw, one extremity of which had 
forced itself into the right nostril, where it was discernible 
externally, whilst the headed end lay in contact with his 
tongue. To extract the jagged mass of iron thus sunk in the 
ethmoidal and sphenoidal cells was found hopelessly impracti- 
cable ; but, strange to tell, after the inflammation subsided, 
Mr. Fretz recovered rapidly; his general health was unim- 
paired, and he returned to his regiment with this singular ap- 
pendage firmly embedded behind the bones of his face. He 
took his turn of duty as usual, attained the command of his 
company, participated in all the enjoyments of the mess-room, 
and died eight years afterwards, on the 1st of April, 1836, not 
from any consequences of this fearful wound, but from fever 
and inflammation brought on by other causes. 
