COMPARATIVE LESSONS OF BRAIN WOUNDS. 
457 
COMPARATIVE LESSONS OF BRAIN WOUNDS, 
By Dr. G. Archie Stookwell, F.Z.S. 
(Written especially for the American Veterinary Review.) 
0 Continued from page 418 .) 
Atop of this a number of experiments personally undertaken 
by means of domestic and domesticated animals, seems to demon¬ 
strate conclusively the comparative innocuousness of brain 
wounds with free openings; as a rule they are less fatal, and 
'more amenable to surgical measures, in ratio to loss of tissue, 
than solutions of muscular continuity or fractures of long bones, 
provided always that the demands of sanitation , antisepsis and 
drainage be complied with. In all these cases hemorrhage was 
slight as compared with the area of the lesion, and each and all 
exhibited large openings into the cranial vault and through the 
meninges, large suppurating surfaces and great toleration of the 
knife. 
In contrast to the foregoing are two cases that terminated fa¬ 
tally, the one a patient of my own, the second that of a neighbor¬ 
ing practitioner, and by whose favor I was present at the autopsy. 
1. The details of this case are almost identical with those of 
the Norwegian (No. 4), as already given, the wound having been 
inliicted by the same saw. At first progress was favorable, but 
by neglect to comply with directions, the external wound closed, 
and I was summoned to find the man in convulsions. The preju¬ 
dices of friends and relatives would not permit an incision into 
the cerebral cavity, and with a second convulsion life terminated. 
At the post-mortem two ounces of pus were found walled up 
within the cerebral substance! 
2. A young man was wounded by a 22-100 calibre bullet 
from a pocket pistol, the missile entering half an inch to the 
right of the median line of forehead, and one and one-fourth 
inches above the supercilliary ridge. For a time he did well, a 
purulent discharge continuing from the wound for about two 
months. At last hernia cerebri appeared, and following the 
