The Gunner with the Silver Mask
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THE GUNNER WITH THE SILVER MASK By R. L. de C. H. SAUNDERS, M.D.* HALIFAX. NOVA SCOTIA CHAIR of military surgery was the ultra-modern sense (Garrison), re- /yk founded in the University of ceived the news of what was the first / yk Edinburgh in 1806 by King instance in France of a patient recover- ™ George III. It was initially ing from such complicated lacerations, filled by one John Thomson, whom and especially since such ingenuity had Robert Knox the anatomist sarcastically been exercised in attempting to fashion referred to as the “old chairmaker,’’ an artificial jaw. owing to the fact that he was the first The report, translated by Sir William holder of no fewer than three professor- Whymper of the Grenadier Guards, was ships. I11 1823 it was occupied by Dr. submitted to the London Medical (afterward Sir George) Ballingall, who Gazette in 1832, and it was from the was the last to fall the chair, as it was pages of this journal that Ballingall2 abolished shortly after his death in 1855. appears to have become acquainted with Ballingall took the subject of military the particulars of the case. In the third surgery rather more seriously than did edition of his work. “Outlines of Mili- his predecessor, and proceeded to collect tary Surgery,’’ which appeared in 1844, a number of specimens. Among these he says of these exhibits: “Of this con- was a plaster cast of a terribly mutilated trivance I have been enabled through face, and a mask that had been designed the kindness of my friend Mr. Na- to permit the subject to move freely smyth,3 to exhibit a model4 or facsimile among his fellow men without attract- to the students of Military Surgery here ing undue attention. Both of these1 may for some years past.’’ Although the mask still be seen in the surgical section of is a model and I have not been able to the anatomical museum of the Univer- discover what happened to the original, sity of Edinburgh, and the story asso- this does not seem to detract from the ciated with them is that of Alphonse value of the exhibit in the anatomical Louis, the Gunner with the Silver museum, because an examination of Mask. the mask revealed an inscription5 which This extraordinary case had been the proved to my satisfaction that it had subject of a special report to the famous been made by the artist who had made French surgeon, Baron Larrey, by a Dr. the original, and who is referred to fur- Forjet, who was surgeon-major to the ther on. Although our illustrations are Army of the North in the siege of Ant- those of Ballingall's facsimiles, we werp (1832), and who figures in the should think rather of their historical story. One can imagine the interest with associations. which Baron Larrey, who was the origi- Let us turn then to the events which nator of “first aid to the wounded’’ in led up to our subject receiving his * Assistant Professor of Anatomy, Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia. Formerly Lecturer in Anatomy, University of Edinburgh. wound. A little more than a hundred the position of a gunner waiting to serve years ago Belgium was struggling to his piece; that is, he was holding a hand- establish her national independence and spike or lever obliquely across his body with the right hand raised and the left depressed. The fragment which struck him weighed seven pounds, and was part of a twelve inch shell which had burst a few feet above the battery. First striking the left side of his jaw, it car- ried away almost all the left half of the mandible, leaving only its extreme pos- terior portion and ramus. It fractured the alveolar process and teeth of the left maxilla, lacerated the parotid duct and left side of the tongue, exposed the hyoid bone, and completed its work by carrying away the right half of the mandible anterior to the first molar on that side. The magnitude of the wound can best be judged by examining Figure 1 which, as will be seen, is a cast of his face taken after his wounds had healed. It will be noticed that the wound ex- free herself from the inadequate repre- tended upward on either side of the sentation and financial burden which mouth from the upper border of the her union with Holland entailed. It was thyroid cartilage, reaching the zygo- a bitter struggle, and owed much to the matic arch on the left side, and the lower intervention of Britain and France, for border of the maxilla on the right. The the fleet of the former successfully tongue, swollen to four times its usual blockaded the Scheldt, while the army size, hung down in front of the larynx, of the latter drove the Dutch from Ant- and together with the lacerated palate werp. and cavity of the throat constituted the December of 1832 found Marshal center of the wound. In addition to Gerard before the gates of Antwerp removing almost all the fleshy parts of with a French army of some sixty thou- the cheek and a considerable portion of sand men. The Dutch garrison was un- der the command of General Chasse, the lower jaw, the shell splinter caused but almost a month was to elapse before a severe compound fracture of the right it capitulated. Among the attacking forearm. force was a handsome young private, Raised from the field, Louis was trans- one Alphone Louis, a native of St. Lau- ported to a hospital at Hoboken where rent, Pas de Calais, and member of the a surgeon-major attempted to diminish 2nd Regiment of Artillery. This man the aperture by stitching the integu- was unfortunate enough to be wounded ments of the neck and maxillary regions. during the first week of the siege, on The forearm was amputated some two December 6. He was in the trenches at inches below the elbow, the wounds the time, and stood fronting the left dressed, and but scant hope given of his wheel of his gun. He was hit when in survival. It is recorded that “symptoms of gen- was to aid the artist in constructing a eral reaction” were not long in develop- “substitute for the lost parts, that might ing, but they did not appear to be pro- not only render essential service to the portionate to the gravity of the wound. The greatly swollen wounds were dressed daily, and a week later he was transferred to a reserve hospital at Boom where the surgeon. Dr. Forjet, was somewhat more optimistic of saving his life. Fed at first on thin broth, he was later given soups and lemonade tinged with wine, and finally animal and vege- table jellies. These were poured down his pharynx from a narrow curved spoon. Deglutition was at first painful, but became less so; and although his sense of taste was initially impaired he soon regained it. Suppuration then set in. These were the days of “laudable pus,” for Lister had not yet showed that the old Hippo- cratic healing by first intention was the surgeon's ideal, and so it is not surpris- ing that the suppurative state of the stump was regarded as “satisfactory,” although that of the face was viewed individual, but even deceive the eye as with less favor because several portions to the ravages of the wound.” had sloughed away. A mask designed by Dr. Forjet was During the rest of the month of De- executed in silver by a M. Verschuylen cember, and the first half of January, of Antwerp. As will be seen from Fig- the poor man appears to have suffered ure 2 it was a half mask, without nose greatly, for not only was he moved yet or cheeks, that enclosed the whole ex- again, this time to a military hospital at tent of the deformity. The edges of the Antwerp, but both his wounds were the contrivance, where they came in contact seat of considerable inflammation and with the face, were skilfully obscured by gangrene, which nothing could arrest. mustachios and whiskers, and it was to Painful to dress, and extruding necrotic his fortune that these were the fashion bone, they were so unwholesome in of the day. The external aspect of the character that it was found necessary to mask was painted in oils so as to cor- use chloruret of sodium (sodium chlo- respond with his complexion, and it was ride). Despite this, however, he sur- said of it that the illusion was so strong vived, his general and local condition that “unless forewarned, he might be commencing to show some sign of im- steadfastly examined at a short distance provement in the latter part of January. without betraying his misfortune.” The By February 10 his wounds had suffi- lower part of the mask was obscured by ciently cicatrized to permit a plaster cast his cravat. The straps which held it in of his face being taken without causing place were hidden by his hair, and alto- any great pain. This was but a prelimi- gether, judging from the quaint wood- nary to making a cast-iron mask which cut in Ballingall’s Military Surgery, he must have presented quite a hue ap- could be evacuated as the occasion de- pearance. manded by tilting the head toward the A trap carrying the lips and chin (Fig. left, when these fluids could escape 3) could be sprung by pressing a small through a square aperture placed just button which had thoughtfully been anterior to the button which released placed on the left side of the face.