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pendent ’man, nor visited upon him as awilful neglect of duty, what was but thenecessary result of sickness: he has not,with unprovoked malice, sought to injuretbe fortunes of a young man of respectablehabits and acquirements, by a sweepingcharge of professional incompetence, thetruth of which he was from circumstances? incapable, as by nature he was careless,of ascertaining ; finally, he is not one, onwhose character the brand of falsehood hasbeen indelibly affixed.I now take my leave, I trust for ever, of

thiswretched scribbler. I know not whencehe has sucked in the venom that alone re-

deems him from insignificance. Certain Iam, he had it not from the distinguishedand amiable man, under whose auspices hebegan his professional studies, and whoselamented death transferred the viper to thecare of him, whose kindness lie has re-

quited in a manner so congenial to his na-ture. Let him continue his darling work ofdefamation, the public will j udge betweenhim and the honourable men whom heslanders, and of whom it is no more thannegative praise to say,that they have nothingin common with the coward and the ruffian,nothing that can move the regard of such abeing as Lennox.

Your obedient servant,

Dublin, Dec. 12, 1328.

REMARKABLE CASE OF FRACTURED CRA-NIUM WITH EXTENSIVE INJURY TO THE

BRAIN.

Treated by EDWARD HERON, Esq. of theIrish College of Surgeons.

Pat. Nuttey, artat. 11, of slender habit,on Saturday, the 30th of October, 1828, hav-ing quarrelled with another boy, receivedan injury, the particular nature of which hewas not conscious ofr- His antagonist heldin his hand a round iron instrument, bluntat the extremity, which enfiuted it. Shortlyafter, he was attacked with vomiting andnausea, which continued for that and thesucceeding day. He returned from his workin the evening, and did not complain of anything except the nausea, and that his eyewas hurt in boxing, the lids being black. iOn the succeeding day he became a littledelirious, and complained of pain in hishead, and the day following he became in-sensible. Medical advice was then soughtfor; his parents, not- being aware of anything particular, did not seek for it sooner. Isaw him, and his symptoms were as follow : -.- He lay upon his back, very restless,drawing back the bed-clothes when drawnNo. 282.

off him, and insensible, not answeringwhen spoken to; his breathing was in-creased and difficult, attended with heavingof the chest ; his skin very hot, and dry;pulse frequent, and hard ; the pupils weresomewhat dilated, but contracted upon theapplication of light; the tongue was dry, andhe had slight difficulty of deglutition ; hisurine and faeces were passed involuntarily ;he had no paralysis, but was occasionallyslightly convulsed ; the lids of his left eyewere ecchymosed, and, upon the most mi-nute inspection, no trace of wound or injurycould be seen, save a slight scratch on theinteguments of the lower lid. He was bledfrom both arms, and got purgative medi-cines, and, in the evening, his symptomsnot being mitigated, some blood was takenfrom the external jugular vein ; but his

breathing, which was the most prominentsymptom, became severer, and he died at 10o’clock the third day after the receipt of theinjury.

Post-mortem Examination.—Ten hours afterdeath I examined the head, and, even then,could not discover a wound between the eyeand lid ; but upon raising the brain off theorbitar process of the frontal bone, it wasdiscovered that the instrument had passedbetween the eye and orbit, and entered nearlyat its apex, making an opening in it abouthalf the size of a sixpence. The instru-ment ran into the brain, and up through thebody of the lateral ventricle, and into itssubstance, for at least three inches. Thebrain, in the track of the wound, appearedas if it was broken up, and very similar tobrain that had sloughed, and the ventriclewas filled with bloody serum.

This case is remarkable in a threefold

point of view. 1st. As it shows that an ex-tensive injury done to the brain, and evenat its base, may not be followed by any par-ticular symptoms for some time, or even

known to the patient himself, and that, evenunder such circumstances, life may be pro-longed for a considerable time. 2dly. Thatan instrument, even of a good size, may passbetween the orbit and the eye, without theleast trace of a wound being seen ; so that,as in this case, the brain may be severely

injured by a wound tnnicted from without.and yet no trace, during life, by which itmade its entrance. 3dly. That, in this case,the symptoms were doubtful as to the natureof the case, the appearance of the patient be-ing rather like one in the last stage of ty-phus fever, or even, as it was said in thiscase, like a person in the last stage of acutehydrocephalus. The patient having conti-nued at his work, and walked home, a distance of better than a mile, in the evening,and not having complained ; and being previ.ously a little unwell from cold, threw muchobscurity upon the real nature of the case.