HARD TO KILL.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 2, Issue 169, 26 May 1879, Page 2

HARD TO KILL.

A bullet through the brain is generally supposed to cause certain if not instantaneous death. It seems, however, that this is a mistake. There are two cases now under medical treatment in Newark, Now Jersey, which, it is stated, " puzzle the attending physicians and excite the wonderment of the whole community." One is that aDr Trevanian Haight, who on the 27th of February, during a fit of melancholy produced by linancial troubles, put a bullet into his head with the object of destroying himself. He was, however, doomed to disappointment, being still alive and likely to recover. The ball took a transverso course through the substance of the anterior lobes of the brain. Its effect lias been merely to occasion partial derangement, showing itself chiefly in absenco of mind. There has been no marked physical change, the doctor's pulse beating at its average rate, mid his temperature remaining as usual. Totiil physical recovery is confidently expected, but full restoration to intelligence is considered doubtful. The other case is that of a robust German, by name Charles Hoehule, 23 years old, who also attempted to commit suicide on the 20th of February, by shooting himself through the head. The bullet entered the head a little to the left of the centre of the frontal bone and lodged somewhere in the brain. On the following day the young man's respiration and pulse were normal; but not so his appetite, which was wonderfully improved by his attempt at self-destruction, In violation of his physician's orders to keep quiet, ho got out of bed several times and went to the kitchen for something to eat. As he could not be kept in order at home lie was taken to St, Michael's Hospital, where he still remains, and by latest accounts appears to be all tlio better for the bullet in his brain.