CHAPTER XXV. 



WOUNDS — continued. 



GUN-SHOT CANNON BALLS WIND CONTUSIONS — MUSKET-SHOT — 



GRAPE-SHOT — SMALL-SHOT — CONSEQUENCES OF GUN-SHOT WOUNDS 



WOUNDS AND BRUISES HAVING SPECIAL NAMES SPEEDY-CUT 



TREAD CUTTING OR BRUSHING WOUNDS OF ABDOMINAL 



PARIETIES — BURNS, SCALDS, AND THE EFFECTS OF COLD — POISONED 

 WOUNDS. 



GUN-SHOT WOUNDS. 



Under this term are included all the injuries caused by the 

 discharge or bursting of fire-arms. They consist of severe con- 

 tusions, with or without solution of continuity. 



CANNON BALLS. 



The cannon ball, for the distance in which its impetus and 

 velocity are greatest, destroys everything that opposes its course. 

 If it strikes a limb, it knocks it off, leaving a stump covered 

 with a disintegrated mass of pulpified tissues, and bone ground 

 down to powder. But if the shot has travelled until its impetus 

 is somewhat lost, the injury it inflicts is ten times greater. It 

 tears its way more deliberately, lacerates the skin, cuts the 

 muscles into longer and' looser flaps, and splits the bones to a 

 considerable distance above the wound. Should the shot strike 

 the limb slantingly, it may inflict a severe laceration, with or 

 without injury of the bone. Of such injuries, those which tear 

 across the great vessels and nerves are the most dangerous ; 

 whilst lacerations in the length of the limb, such as the plough- 

 ing up of the outside of the thigh from hock to stifle, or from 

 stifle to hip, may be recovered from if the great vessels be 

 untouched. 



