Unidentified photographer / artist
1870, 30 Sept (after)
SP310 Cranium with an Iron Arrow-Head impacted in the left Temporal Bone

Albumen print
National Museum of Health and Medicine
Private Martin W____, Troop E, 4th Cavalry, was killed by Indians on September 30, 1870, twenty miles from Fort Concho, Texas, while on duty as one of the mail-stage guard from Fort Chadbourne. The escort being attacked by a band of Comanches, this soldier was wounded by an iron-headed arrow, which entered the squamous portion of the temporal bone, and penetrated the left cerebral hemisphere to a depth of an inch or more, causing intracranial bleeding which was speedily fatal. The pathological specimen, with the history, was forwarded to the Army Medical Museum by Assistant Surgeon W.M. Notson, U.S.A., and is numbered 5908 of the Surgical Section. A puncture of the thin calvaria, without fissuring, is well indicated. Internally there is no splintering. The vitrous table is as cleanly divided as the outer table. Photographed at the Army Medical Museum by order of the Surgeon General: George A, Otis, Ass't Surgeon, U.S.A., Curator, A.M.M. Selected by Kathleen.
 
This image was posted to Flickr in Feb 22, 2009. - otisarchives1 / Otis Historical Archives Nat'l Museum of Health & Medicine
 
LL/31921