The wound showed that the ball struck the skull and plowed along under the scalp for several inches before emerging, but it did not even knock the negro down, and no unconsciousness followed later.

I once examined an express-messenger who had been shot in the occipital region by a weapon of similar size, while seated at his desk in the car.

The blow was a very glancing one and did not produce unconsciousness, and probably, as in the case of the negro, because it did not strike with sufficient directness." Head Injuries with Loss of Cerebral Substance .-- The brain and its membranes may be severely wounded, portions of the cranium or cerebral substance destroyed or lost, and yet recovery ensue.

Possibly the most noted injury of this class was that reported by Harlow and commonly known as "Bigelow's Case" or the "American Crow-bar Case." Phineas P.
Gage, aged twenty-five, a foreman on the Rutland and Burlington Railroad, was employed September 13, 1847, in charging a hole with powder preparatory to blasting.

A premature explosion drove a tamping-iron, three feet seven inches long, 1 1/4 inches in diameter, weighing 13 1/4 pounds, completely through the man's head.