Living a Month with a Severed Head.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 2, Issue 292, 14 March 1881, Page 1

Living a Month with a Severed Head.

We have heard of the marvellous American cock which lived as well without its head as with it. Now we have the case of a man who has lived for more than a month with his head all but severed from the trunk, and this time the story is too well authenticated to be disbelieved. The hero of it is a Frenchman, named Jules Rouchon. Recently some groans were heard proceeding from his lodgings in Paris, and when his neighbors broke open the door they found him stretched on the floor weltering in his blood, and his head almost detached from his body. He had intended to commit suicide, and with this object cut his throat with a razor. But he had failed to achieve his purpose, for still he breathed, and was conveyed to St. Antoine Hospital. To everyone’s amazement, he was stilPalive when he reached his destination, and, what is yet more surprising, he lived for more than a month after hfe entrance. His head was only held to the trunk by a thread, and the medical men who attended him consider the prolongation of his life during nearly five weeks as nothing less than phenomenal. Food was administered to him by means of a sort of funnel. During these weeks he survived he retained all his faculties, and seemed to be perfectly free from pain to the last, dying without a struggle. The body of this remarkable patient was handed over to the Faculty of Medicine for examination. —English Paper. ■■