STRANGE POST-MORTEM DISCOVERY.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 11391, 5 December 1898, Page 1

STRANGE POST-MORTEM DISCOVERY.

A NAIL EMBEDDED IN THE BRAIN. CARRIED UNKNOWINGLY FOB 14 YEARS, Dr. J. E. Neild, of Melbourne, mado an extraordinary discovery when engaged on a post-niortcni examination on the body of an eiderly woman who had iied in the Kew Asylum recently. Firmly embedded in the top oE the skall, and penetrating about half-an-inch into the brain, was a bootmaker's nail, of tbe sort generally known as " clouts," and which are used only in the soles of very heavy boots. The head of tbe nail was so deeply -fixed into tbe bone that its top was on a level with the surface of the skull, and the clout bore the appearance of having been " counter-sunk " by a skilful operative. The point extended directly into the brain matter, passing through the external covering of the brain, known aa the •• dura mater," and penetrating the actual brain-matter by a quarter of an inch. I No false membranajiad been formed, tbe end of the nail remaining apparently quite at home in the tissues 'of the brain, for there was not the slightest sign of any inflammation having at any period resulted from the entrance of this foreign substance. The strangest part of all, however, was only apparent when Dr.fNcild made a detailed examination of the whole brain, for, contrary to all expectations, there was no indication that the insanity of th« woman had in any way resulted from the penetration of tbe nail. The woman had been an inmate of the asylum for 14 years — a -quiet, harmless lunatic, whose condition indicated that she was suffering from softening of the brain — and when the skull - was opened this diagnosis was* found to be correct. The woman's brain was excessively soft, but all evidences went to show that the injury had nothing whatever to do with her mental condition. How the accident happened it is hard to conjecture, but from the position of the nail it is most probable that she had fallen backwards heavily, the top of hep head striking a nail that lay upturned on the floor. Rendered unconscious by the shock, it is most likely that tbe sufferer came to believing that she had only sustained a scalp wound, and, not consulting a medical man, allowed the wound to heal and the skin to close over the head of .the nail. The injury must have happened long prior to her admission to the asylum, for no patient could have been so hurt without her wounds receiving medical attention, and _ in addition, tbe appearance of the wound proved it to have been of long standing. Several cases that have occurred of late years have done much lodispel the popular delusion that the slightest penetration of the brain means instant death. A few years back ft young man caused, a sensation by walking from the Prince's Bridge railwaySstation to the Melbourne Hospital with a ramrod sticking through his skull. U e bad been shooting, and the premature explosion of a gun has resulted in what was regarded as a hopeless case. But the surgical staff, ot tbe hospital got to work, dragged out the bar of steel, and in a few weeks discharged tbe patient in the hospital, cured. He is alive and well to s day, as is also a youth who was aJmitted to the same institution a few weeks later with a bullet through his brain. This bullet was never recovered, and a? it failed to trouble the bearer of it, it was allowed to remain there, and, to all appearances has done little harm- A more recent case of the sort is that which occurred at a southern watering place about 10 months ago, when a boy was accidentally shot through the brain by a stray bullet. In this case -the pellet was extracted by a Melbourne surgeon, and the lad is now in perfect mental and bodily health.