Rifle—Plate 16.
UPPER EXTREMITY.
Gunshot Fracture of the Humerus.
The transverse course of the bullet, striking the posterior wall of the shaft without entering the medullary canal, has fractured the bone transversely, with a tendency toward splitting off a large fragment from the distal fragment.
The bullet under these ballistic conditions of high velocity and not distant range might have bored its way through the cancellous tissue of the epiphysis of the same bone without any fractures.
Gunshot Fracture of the Ulna.
The transverse course of the bullet in striking the ulna at high velocity and not distant range has shown a tendency to bore a hole through the bone. A smaller bullet or a larger bone of the same structure might easily have provided conditions to permit this effect. The wounds of exit and entrance in each of these wounds presented almost identically the same appearance.
The treatment in such cases is that of a simple fracture, as there is almost always no infection in such wounds.
Plate 17.