The heart-sounds were regular,
and the elevation of the skin by the blade coincided with the
ventricular systole. The blade was removed on the following day,
and the patient gradually improved. Some thirteen months after he
had expectoration of blood and pus and soon died. At the necropsy
it was seen that the wound had involved both lungs; the posterior
wall of the ventricle and the inferior lobe of the right lung
were traversed from before backward, and from left to right, but
the ventricular cavity was not penetrated. Strange to say, the
blade had passed between the vertebral column and the esophagus,
and to the right of the aorta, but had wounded neither of these
organs.
O'Connor mentions a graduate of a British University who, with
suicidal intent, transfixed his heart with a darning-needle. It
was extracted by a pair of watchmaker's pliers. In five days the
symptoms had all abated, and the would-be suicide was well enough
to start for the Continent. Muhlig was consulted by a mason who,
ten years before, had received a blow from a stiletto near the
left side of the sternum. The cicatrix was plainly visible, but
the man said he had been able to perform his daily labors,
although at the present time suffering from intense dyspnea and
anasarca.
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