124 FRIGHTFUL FRACTURE OF THE HEAD. 
would tire the reader’s patience, from not affording him in- 
formation of any practical utility or interest : let it, therefore, 
suffice to say, that, all things considered, under the simplest 
treatment, the case has all along proceeded surprisingly well. 
There supervened upon the lesion but very moderate febrile 
commotion ; and what proved most satisfactory was, that the 
eye, which had so narrow an escape of being dragged out of 
its socket, in being deprived of part of its osseous case as well 
as its soft supports, not only continued free from ophthalmia, 
but, indeed, never even became at all obscured : in fact, it 
only gave issue to more conjunctival and lachrymal secretions 
than usual. 
As soon as it was evident that all dangerous consequences 
had passed over, and that the reparative process had on all sides 
set in, the important question suggested itself — Is it possible 
Nature can ever completely repair such a breach ] — Can such 
a gaping and rugged chasm ever be filled up ; ever covered in 
again with skin and hair I — What is likely to be the upshot of 
so much mischief and destruction of parts] With due reliance 
upon the vast and miraculous powers of the vis medicatrix 
naturce t and attaching all but absolute impossibilities to the 
operations of such a power, especially in brute animals, I have 
been of opinion, myself, from the first, that, ultimately, the 
closing-in of the hollow wound would some time or other be 
effected ; though the great obstacle in the way of such closure 
appeared to be the necessity for the skin to make its way 
across vacant space, a work, indeed, which even to Nature 
appears impossible ! It was, in fact, self-evident that skin 
could not be formed but upon a sub-stratum of some sort; and 
here there existed nothing of the kind. 
In order to shut in the wound, the skin had to stretch across 
the opened roofs of the maxillary and frontal sinuses. I 
thought at one time of making the experiment of performing 
the Taliacotian operation. I meditated dissecting a flap of skin 
off the cheek, and, after giving it a twist, turning it round 
over the void space. But a little reflection shewed that the 
adhesion of this was pretty well liable to the same objections 
as the growth of new skin. Still would a sub-stratum of some 
kind be wanting. Relinquishing this experiment, I saw no pros- 
pect but in the resources of Nature. Leaving the wound to itself 
seemed to me to afford hope that, at some remote period of 
time, through means of the septa crossing and inter-crossing 
the maxillary sinus, and dividing that from the frontal sinus, 
in conjunction with the contraction which has been perceptibly 
going on in the external breach, though of course very tardily, 
Nature would find out some way of accomplishing, ultimately, 
