Cold ice, if possible, or if it cannot be had, simple water should be applied over this; put to bed in a tent by himself: an active purd, and a most meagre diet allowed. The utmosl (piiet should be enforced, and in short, the antiphlogistic treatment very decidedly and com p! carried out. He should be visited frequently; and if any signs of inflammatory or excited action nd ropi,.us bleeding should be put in force. "Of all the ivmedies in the power of art," say1'ott. "for inllammatioiis of membranous parts, there is none phlebotomy, and it' anything can particularly the piwention of the ills likely to follow severe co of the head, it is this kind of evacua;i it must be made use of in such a manner as to become truly a prevmtativc, that is,
I IM r saw any good arise use of tartar-emetic in t; Cold locally, and early bleeding, re>f disturbance showed them;h the of leeches iu some Cases to the head, seemed always siitheient, as they d means such patients. As balls when in the hi re, almost imiver.sdlv followed in the -M WAII. army, is to extract them if they can be at all got at. It is true that masses of a far more formidable nature than balls have remained on, and even in the brain without mischief, and that balls have been discovered encysted years after their entrance. But these cases form a mere fraction of the number in which the presence of the ball has determined fatal complications; yet they are the " ignes fatui " by which some would mislead us from the plain path of duty, which inculcates the removal of such foreign bodies, if at all practicable.
Sir B. Brodie, arguing from an analysis of the published cases, advovates their abandonment unless superficially placed; but from this view nearly all military surgeons dissent. In our proceedings, however, " boldness must not partake of temerity." Few would have the courage or confidence of Larrey, or Sir Charles Bell, to follow and extract the ball from the side of the head opposite to the place of entrance, or, like Sedillot, pursue it to the depth of several inches in the cerebral substance; yet all reasonable attempts ought to be made for its extraction. "Nothing," says Sir George Ballingall, "will induce me to countenance the practice of leaving it there, except the impossibility of finding it;" and again, " I am of opinion that it ought to be extracted even at the risk of some additional injury; in short, the prohibition of violence ought rather to apply to the search after balls, than to the operation of extracting them." " We have already cited several cases," says Quesney, " which teach us that foreign bodies may remain a long time in the brain without causing death; but with this knowledge we must also bear in mind that it is our duty to extract these bodies, which, sooner or later, almost always IN J riJlC.S OF T1IF.