154 



MAMMALIA. 



[Chaf. IV. 



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 EifleEegiment, 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. 



