PARSON'S BROKEN NECK.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19382, 17 July 1926, Page 2 (Supplement)

PARSON'S BROKEN NECK.

RESULT OF MOTOR ACCIDENT. LIVES FOR FOUR DAYS. PREACHING IN- THE MEANTIME. Mr. Taylor, a clergyman of Weston-super-Mare, aged 65, was run down by a car while cycling recently. He had a bad fall, but declared he was unhurt,* and went afc once by train to Beckenham, a journey of 140 miles. That was on a Friday. He took part in four services on Sunday, and died on the following Tuesday. It was not until then that it was found Qiat his neck had been dislocated by the fall. He had, in fact, been preaching and performing his other duties with a broken neck. This case recalls that of Joseph Tomlinson, a collier, who, in March, 1906, was buried by a roof fall in the pit. He was taken to hospital, but the doctors failed to find serious injury and he walked home. Next day he was paralysed and taken back to hospital, but in about a month he was discharged, "cured." Five years later, in 1911, an X-ray photograph revealed the

fact that the poor man's spine had been fractured, and he was awarded compensation for permanent incapacity. Equally amazing was the vitality of a painter named Gardner, of South Hackney, who was run down by a cyclist. He was ill for a time, but recovered, though afterwards he often complained of headache. Eighteen months later he became very ill and died. Then, and not till then, it was found that he had been living all this time with his skull fractured from side to side, and that a part of it was loose.

A Catford bank clerk, who had sustained concussion of the brain while bathing in the sea, became obsessed with the fear that he would never again be able to do his work. While in this state of mind, he shot himself, putting two bullets in his head. One was extracted, the other remained embedded 4in. deep in the brain. Yet, when later on he was charged with attempted 1 suicide, he was apparently in Uie best of health.

The pluck shown by a labourer called Jenkinson rivals that of the clergyman whose case has been, recorded. Biding a bicycle from Norman Cross to Peterborough, he had a terrible fall, breaking his collarbone and fracturing his skull. He remounted his bicycle and rode the rest of the way to Peterborough before becoming unconscious and dying. A man of over sixty, a night -watchman,, was run over by a locomotive at Queen's Road, Battersea. Nearly all his ribs were broken and his right foot terribly crushed, vet, in {spite of his dreadful injuries, he picked himself up, walked some distance along the line, descended sixteen steps

of a ladder, and reached his hut. Four hours later he was found there, still alive, by a policeman. One of the pluckiest things done in the Great War is also a tribute to man's power of physical endurance. A French airman, flying at 9000 ft., was struck by a German shell, which tore off his left foot. In spite of his awful wound he went on to his destination, dropped his bomb, then flew home to his aerodrome, a distance of 27 miles!