Page:The growth of medicine from the earliest times to about 1800.djvu/524

 accounts of the three cases to which I have referred read as follows:—

Case I.—A small boy was hit on the right temple by a stone that had been thrown by one of his companions. Unconsciousness resulted and lasted for six days. On the seventh day signs of returning consciousness manifested themselves, but inability to speak persisted. By the end of another week the boy had already made some efforts to speak, but his speech was incomprehensible. After the twentieth day it was possible to understand a little of what the boy was trying to say; and from this time onward steady improvement in this respect was recognizable from day to day; but the boy's speech did not become quite normal until after the lapse of about a year.

When Carcano Leone was called to see the patient he found that the entire temporal muscle had been crushed and that almost the entire right side of the head was occupied by a fluctuating swelling. By making a free incision in the swelling Leone gave exit to a large quantity of black coagulated blood. On the following day, when he made an examination with the probe, he found that the entire squamous portion of the temporal bone was in a fractured state, one part of it overriding the rest. By the aid of elevators he succeeded in lifting up the depressed part of the bone, but the accomplishment of this result left a large gap between the opposite edges of the fragments, and through this opening one could see the movements of the dura mater. Complete healing took place only after the lapse of twelve months.

When Leone reported the case to his former teacher, Fallopius, the latter replied that he would not have had the courage to adopt the course which his former pupil had pursued.

Case II.—In another case the patient, a full-grown man, was struck on the right temple by a highwayman with a heavy cane which broke in two in the middle under the great force which the assailant had employed. He was left lying on the roadside in a state of unconsciousness until some passers-by discovered him and carried him to his home. He remained unconscious for several days. Before the physician was summoned all sorts of measures had been resorted to for the purpose of dissipating the swelling in the temporal region, but without success. Leone, on arriving upon the scene, made a free incision which afforded escape to a large quantity of decomposing blood that appeared to be collected, not between the muscle and the skin, but between the muscle and