Note 806 — ON INJURIES OF THE HEAD.

This description of a piece of bone which is going to exfoliate, is remarkably correct. Compare it with the following narrative: “A girl of ten or twelve years of age was struck on the head by an iron rod falling on her; the blow caused no wound, and the young woman was soon well, with the exception of a fixed pain of no great extent, which remained over one of the parietal bones. The pain continued for several years. M. Mareschal, who was at last consulted, considered it necessary to trepan. He exposed the bone at the painful part, and applied one crown of a trepan; he observed, that the bone, when sawed, appeared dry, like a skull that had been buried.” (Quesnay, on the Use of the Trepan.) This agrees excellently with the description given by Hippocrates. It is to be regretted, however, that the text here; as far as regards one word ἀποστρακὸς, is in a very unsatisfactory state. The conjectural emendation of Schneider (ἀπεσκληκὸς) seems to be a plausible emendation, but it is not adopted by Littré.