Page:Recovery from the passage of an iron bar through the head.djvu/12

12 110; lancinating pain in left side of head and face; rigors, and bowels constipated. Ordered cold to the head and face, and a cathartic, to be taken and repeated if it does not operate in six hours.

Nov. 16th, A.M.—No better. Cathartic has operated freely. Pulse 120; has passed a sleepless night; skin hot and dry; pain and thirst unabated. Was bled from the arm ℥ xvi., and got:—℞. Hydrag. chloridi, gr. x.; ipecac, gr. ij. M.

8, P.M., same day.—Pulse falling; heat and pain moderated. Took a solution of ant. pot. tart. during night, and slept well.

17th, A.M.—Much improved. Has been purged freely during night, and says he feels better every way. Has no pain in head.

18th.—Is walking about house again, free from pain in head, and appears to be in a way of recovering, if he can be controlled. Has recently had several pieces of bone pass into the fauces, which he expelled from the mouth. The discharge from the head very slight, and the opening steadily closing up.

On the 25th he was taken, in a close carriage, a distance of thirty miles, to Lebanon, N. H., his home, where I saw him the succeeding week, and found him going on well. He continued to improve steadily, until on Jan. 1, 1849, the opening in the top of his head was entirely closed, and the brain shut out from view, though every pulsation could be distinctly seen and felt. Gage passed the succeeding winter months in his own house and vicinity, improving in flesh and strength, and in the following April returned to Cavendish, bringing his "iron" with him.

He visited me at that time, and presented something like the following appearances. General appearance good; stands quite erect, with his head inclined slightly towards