Plate 64.
Rifle—Plate 64.
LOWER EXTREMITY.
Gunshot Fracture of the Tibia.
The course of the bullet was diagonal, from without inward and from before backward through the middle of the tibia. Small particles of metal have lodged at the site of the fracture—a condition which never occurs in a rifle wound with the jacket of the bullet intact, while it is the invariable accompaniment of a shrapnel wound of a bone.
It is inferred that the jacket of the bullet in this case was damaged by ricochet, or that some metal particles from the object against which the bullet ricocheted were carried into the wound, as some other small pieces of metal are seen in areas distant from the seat of fracture.
As the fragments are small and not displaced, the velocity of the missile, at least that of mid-range, was almost sufficient to perforate the bone without fracture.
Plate 65.
