The blade passed through the diaphragm, cut off a portion of the liver, and severed the descending aorta at a point about the 7th dorsal vertebra; the soldier lived over three hours after complete division of this important vessel.

Heil reports the case of a man of thirty-two, a soldier in the Bavarian army, who, in a quarrel in 1812, received a stab in the right side.

The instrument used was a common table-knife, which was passed between the 5th and 6th ribs, entering the left lung, and causing copious hemorrhage.

The patient recovered in four months, but suffered from amaurosis which had commenced at the time of the stab.

Some months afterward he contracted pneumonia and was readmitted to the hospital, dying in 1813.