AND PERSONALITY 



a cable that carries thousands of connecting wires, and the 

 nerve trunks are lesser cables. A shot in the spinal cord or 

 in a nerve trunk of a leg will at once paralyze the muscles 

 supplied by those nerves but will not kill the animal. The 

 shoulder shot is, in effect, a nerve shot, for either the bullet 

 passing through the shoulder will sever the great nerves or 

 the concussion will disable or kill the animal. 



The nerve cells of the brain and their extensions, the 

 nerve fibers, are the most delicate structures known. The 

 membrane surrounding a nerve cell is 1/2,500,000 centi- 

 meter thick, only the thickness of I molecule of oil: it is 

 much thinner, for instance, than the film of a soap bubble. 

 The films surrounding these cells hold electric charges. The 

 brain is a semisolid mass of jellylike consistency. It is 85 

 per cent water. Little wonder it is so securely encased in 

 bone. 



It is obvious that these delicate structures are easily 

 disturbed. A blow on the head or the concussion of a high- 

 velocity bullet, striking the neighborhood of these infinitely 

 delicate nerve cells, may cause such violent agitation as to 

 suspend their function temporarily. Therefore, a shot that 

 does not penetrate the brain or the spinal cord but that 

 sends into it an overwhelming molecular vibration may 

 temporarily suspend its function. If an animal drops 

 instantly when shot it is impossible to say at the first 

 moment whether it is dead or only in temporary concussion. 

 A high-powered bullet merely grazing the base of a horn or 

 the top of the skull may lead the unwary to think he has 

 delivered a fatal shot, for the animal may instantly drop; 

 but the apparently dead animal, immobile sometimes for a 

 long moment, may be charging or escaping the next moment. 



Contrasting the impotence of the nine long-distance 

 shots with steel-jacketed bullets from a Sauer Mauser rifle 

 .30-06 with the overwhelming effect of a single shot at 18 

 feet with a soft-nosed bullet from a Holland & Holland .465, 

 we have a 'striking example of the mechanics of killing by 



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