The Glands Regulating Personality: A Study of the Glands of Internal Secretion in Relation to the Types of Human NatureBerman, Louis
History
The Glands Regulating Personality: A Study of the Glands of Internal Secretion in Relation to the Types of Human Nature
Berman, Louis
Endocrinology; Personality
"'One more struck Marti in the left upper chest. It passed through the
pocket there, and the skirt, grazed the skin, and then bounced over to
the right hand side in front. It was a most amazing case of a bounding
bullet. I was particularly careful about examining its course because
at first I was suspicious of the stories that were told by Marti and
"Miss Jackson." Now I know they are true.
"'But anyone might have been puzzled by the queer antics of the
missiles from the pistol of South American manufacture that the doctor
used. If it had had any penetrating power--or rather if the bullets
that it sent out, had any real kick behind them--the chances are that
both "Miss Jackson" and Marti would be dead now.
"'Two bullets, it will be remembered, entered the doctor's left chest,
quite close together. Well, one nicked the heart and lodged between
the lung and the heart. It didn't cause any more damage than a
mosquito bite.
"'The second bullet went through the soft flesh of the chest, but it
struck a rib and bounded back out again. That bullet was picked up
beside the body.
"'After these vain attempts to send a bullet through his body to a
fatal spot, the doctor apparently shifted the weapon to his right
temple and pulled the trigger for the fifth time. Then the fifth
bullet, driven likewise by a very weak charge of powder, pierced the
skull at a point where it was thin and tore into his brain. Its lack
of power, however, is shown by the fact that I found it this morning
in the brain tissue.
"'In all my experience I have never seen anything so queer. It sounds
almost like a dream--a man trying to kill with a pistol that shoots
bullets that either stop after striking soft flesh or bound out of the
body into which they are fired. But it is true; I have had all of the
bullets in my hand.
"'They are all accounted for. They are all of the same sort. There
is no reason to doubt that they are all from the same weapon, an
instrument without manufacturer's name, and of a design that the
police say is unfamiliar to them.
"'The dead doctor was a distinct type, and his tragic end was one that
should not surprise anyone who has any knowledge of such cases. The
courtroom was thronged with friends of the dead physician-dentist, who
not only is reported to be of a wealthy family of Bogota, Colombia,
but generally is credited with many charitable works in the uptown
Spanish colony here.'"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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