LIVING A MO NTH-WITH A SEVERED HEAD.

Temuka Leader, Issue 363, 15 March 1881, Page 3

LIVING A MO NTH-WITH A SEVERED HEAD.

Wo have heard of the marvelous American cock which lived as well without its head as with it. Now we have the case of a man who has lived more than a month with his head all but severed from the trunk, and this time the story is too well authenticated to bedisbelieved. The hero of it is a Frenchman, named Jules Rouchon. Recently some groans were heard proceeding from his lodgings in Paris, and when his neighbours 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 inte ruled to commit suicide, and with this object cut his throat with a razor. But .lie had ■■■‘failed to achieve his purpose, for he still breathed, and was convoyed to the St. Antonie Hospital. To every one’s amazement, he was still alive when he reached his destination, and, what is yet more surprising, he lived for more than a month after his entrance, having just succumbed. His head . was only held to the trunk l ya 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 sore of funnel. During the weeks he survived he retained all his faculties, and seemed to be perfectly free from pain tc the last, dying without a struggle. The body of this remarkable patient is to be handed over to the Faculty of Medicine for examination.