MEN WHO ARE HARD TO KILL.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7637, 21 February 1903, Page 3

MEN WHO ARE HARD TO KILL.

As Maay Lives as Oats. (r.o.ir.) « Some people appear to have as many lives as the proverbial cat," recently said the house-surgeon of a well-known London hospital to an "1.0.U." man. "The two things which most appeal to every medical man in the exercise of his profession are undoubtedly the slender threads by which life can be both preserved and destroyed. We had a touching incident of the latter type only this morning. Our principal surgeon was performing a delicate operation upon the neck of a fine young guardsman, who had been admitted the previous evening suffering from an abscess in the neck. "Just at the critical moment, an unexpected spasm of the throat twitched the poor fellow's jugular right across the keen blade of the lancet, and almost before we could realise what had happened, he^m a corpse. The accident was unavoidable. '• A. few years ago, one James Carter was admitted to the Nor^iampton Infirmary suffering from injuries to tfte head. lne unfortunate fellow was a groom in the employ of a local magnate, and in alighting from a trap had been thrown by A RESTIVE HORSE, striking his head heavily upon the pave"He was immediately taken to the infirmary, where, to the astonishment of the medical authorities, it was discover^ fl f;J his neck was as surely broken aa that of anv of Billington's victims. Incredible though it may sound, the -unfortunate man lived fourteen days in this condition, before his iron constitution succumbed to an injury that would have probably killed anyone else almost immediately. "Another extraordinary case, wnicn strangely enough occurred in the same week, was discovered at Epsom Railway Station, and transferred thence to Giiy's Hospital. This tjmejthe victim was a would-be suicide, who had shot himself in the morning uptrain from Portsmouth. But though the bullet had penetrated the skull to a depth of three inches and a half, finally lodging in the psychic area of the brain, the unhappy man was not only able to stand the remainder of the journey to London, but actually walked FROM I^NDON" BRIDOE STATION TO THE HOSPITAL, and subsequently undressed himself without assistance. " For some time he "was able to talk quite rationally, his muscular and nervous action was unimpaired, and it really seemed as if he were destined to upset all surgical precedents by recovering from the effects of his self-inflicted injuries. In the end, however, he succumbed ; but only after living for several days with a bullet in his brain, a feat which had previously been scouted as entirely without the bounds of possibility. " A still more unusual case— on the face of it, at anyrate— occurred some eighteen | months since upon a West Sussex cattle j farm. An ex-herd belonging to the farm having quarrelled with his wife t she in a fit of rage put . A LARGE DOSE OF ARSENIC ! —about six grains, or enough to kill three men— in his dinner. No sooner had he swallowed it, however, than she was seized ! with remorse, and rushed from the house in search of the nearest doctor, to whom she related what she had done. " A considerable time had elapsed before the wretched woman found him. The doctor regarded the case aa hopeless ; nevertheless, he hastily seized an emetic and a stomachpump from his surgery, and sallied forth on his errand of mercy l^ Judge, then, of his surprise to find the poisoned man calmly leaning over his gate, smoking a quiet afterdinner pipe, and looking the picture of GOOD HEAI/TH AND CONTENTMENT. And. yet this man had really swallowed a dose of arsenic sufficient to kill three ordinary mortals, a fact which the doctor subsequently verified for himself. "The explanation is simpler than ifc looks. In his professional capacity as an the man had been accustomed 4 to give large quantities of this deadly poison* to his cattle iu order to improve their coats. By a very simple process of reasoning Hodge had come to the conclusion ' that what is good for the gander is also good for the gloose, and had himself taken to consuming minute daily quantities of arsenic."