Simon Stone was shot in nine places, and as he lay for dead the
Indians made two hacks with a hatchet to cut his head off. He
got well, however, and was a lusty fellow in Cotton Mather’s
time. Jabez Musgrove was shot with a bullet that went in at
his ear and came out at his eye on the other side. A couple of
bullets went through his body also. Jabez got well, however, and
lived many years. _Per contra_, Colonel Rossiter, cracking
a plum-stone with his teeth, broke a tooth and lost his life.
We have seen physicians dying, like Spigelius, from a scratch;
and a man who had had a crowbar shot through his head alive and
well. These extreme cases are warnings. But you can never be too
cautious in your prognosis, in view of the great uncertainty
of the course of any disease not long watched, and the many
unexpected turns it may take.--OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES,
JR.
(3518)
=Wounds of Christ=--See STIGMATA.