Does the Bullet Lose in Weight in its Course through the Body?—This is, of course, intended to pertain only to those instances in which there is no evidence of splitting or division of the bullet, and refers only to the effect of friction or attrition. June 5th, 1878, in Saratoga County, Mrs. Jesse Billings was accidentally killed by a bullet. Her husband was arrested and tried for murder. On the first trial he was acquitted. A second trial, however, was held, and some very interesting expert testimony was brought out on matters pertaining to these questions. The medical evidence is published in full by Dr. Lewis Balch, of Albany, in the Transactions of the Medical Society of the State of New York for 1881. The rifle from which the bullet was supposed to have been fired was found in a well, and was sworn to have belonged to Jesse Billings. In it was found a cartridge of the type known as the Commercial Long No. 44. This gun became an important factor in the case, and most of the evidence as to whether it was the weapon with which the murder had been committed was referred to the medical experts. The defence in the first trial claimed that all the lead fired was found in Mrs. Billings’ head. On the second trial the same claim was not made, but that it was a smaller bullet than a .44 and its weight less than 220 grains; that in consequence this rifle could not have been that from which the shot was fired, for it only called for a .44 ball, and that it would have thrown a bullet with such force that it must have gone entirely through the head. They further claimed that powder-marks and grains of powder were found in the window-sash, showing that the weapon was fired near the window, and that the hole in the glass was not large enough to admit a full-sized .44 ball. The verdict was mainly won upon these statements. A question for the medical experts to answer was, what would be the effect upon the skull of a .44-calibre ball fired from a Ballard rifle, the ball weighing 220 grains and the charge of powder being 28 grains? also what would be the effect upon the ball? Experts from the Ordnance Corps and from the rifle factories were able to testify that the bullet found in Mrs. Billings’ head was originally a .44-calibre ball; also that its markings showed the peculiar left-handed twist used in rifling this particular arm. The defence maintained that it could not have been a .44, claiming that the hole in the window-pane showed that. The original window produced in court was no criterion, since from repeated handling the hole made by the bullet had become enlarged and changed in shape. Both of the experts for the defence believed that the ball could not make a hole smaller than itself when passing through glass. This necessarily supposes that the ball after being fired is the same calibre as before, which, as shown above, is not always the case. So Dr. Balch fired forty-five rounds from the Billings rifle with 220 grains of lead and 28 grains of powder. The shots were fired through glass set in sashes, the glass being 28×13¼, double thick and American make. The rifle was discharged at varying angles and at distances varying from two to seventy feet, and he obtained one shot where the hole made would not admit a full-sized ball. His summary was as follows:
| Balls unable to pass through | 1 |
| Balls partly passed | 3 |
| Balls passed | 18 |
| Cartridge passed | 21 |
| Glass broken out | 2 |
| —— | |
| Total | 45 |
Other rounds were fired from a Colt’s navy revolver, old style, .36 calibre, at distances varying from ten to twenty feet. The holes made were so large that the barrels and ramrods could be passed without touching. The examination of the one instance noted above where the aperture in the glass was smaller than the ball is explained by Balch as follows: “A ball conoidal in form, passing with great velocity, strikes glass, penetrates, but does not break the glass at the point of entrance. The point struck is instantly disintegrated, and so rapid is the stroke that it has not time to call upon the surrounding particles for support; hence the smallness of the hole. As glass is made it varies in elasticity; some parts which are to be cut into panes cool faster than others. A bullet striking the portion of the glass which has cooled quickly strikes an object which will yield somewhat to the force; in doing this a hole will be made smaller than if that more brittle had been struck. Furthermore, all rifles taper more or less from breech to muzzle, that is, the muzzle will measure one or more thousandths or hundredths less than the breech. The bullet being forced through the narrow aperture yields to the pressure and becomes smaller. The gun under consideration was measured at the New York Armory, and found to be .44 at the breech or chamber and .423 at the muzzle. Considering these various facts, statements that a ball of known size will make a hole through glass smaller than the size of the ball when fired do not admit of doubt as to their verity. Some statements bearing on this same point contained in a recent letter from Captain Shaler, of the United States Army, deserve mention here. The following experiment was made in Washington by Captain Lyon in October, 1880:
“Noticing a statement in a newspaper to the effect that a ball fired from a rifle would, in passing through glass, make a round hole smaller than the diameter of the ball used, the following experiment was made:
“Service ammunition used, in a calibre .45 Springfield rifle to penetrate glass.
| Time Fired. | Size of Hole made in Glass, inches. | Remarks. |
| 1 | 0.570 | The frame holding the glass was placed 25yards from the muzzle of the gun. |
| 2 | 0.550 | |
| 3 | 0.600 | |
| 4 | 0.600 | |
| 5 | 0.575 | |
| 6 | 0.575 | |
| 7 | 0.590 | |
| 8 | 0.620 | |
| 9 | 0.600 | |
| Average size of hole | 0.586 | |
| Calibre of bullet | 0.458 | |
| ——— | ||
| Difference | 0.125 | |
“From the above it will be noted that there is no uniformity in the size of the holes and that they all exceed the diameter of the bullet.
“These experiments were supplemented by some made recently in which a sash containing six panes of ordinary window-glass was placed at twenty-five yards from the firer and the glass was successively penetrated (a separate pane being used in each case) by bullets from a service .45-calibre Springfield rifle, a .30-calibre Springfield rifle, a .45-calibre Colt’s revolver and a .22-calibre revolver. In every case the hole made was much larger than the bullet making it.”
With reference also to the effect of a ball being smaller than its original diameter after it leaves the piece, Captain Shaler states: “All very compressible bullets forced by inertia lose a certain amount even though they also gain force by slugging. Forcing by inertia tends to shorten the bullet and increase the diameter, while slugging tends to lengthen the bullet and reduce its diameter. Whether the bullet is smaller after it leaves the piece depends upon the bullet used and the method of forcing employed.”
To return to the Billings case, it was claimed that the bullet was also too small. It weighed 165 grains, 55 less than when it was fired from the rifle. Balch found in firing at human skulls, the subjects in all the trials but two being placed in a sitting posture, sometimes with a sash like the Billings window in front of the subject, that the ball lost lead in accordance with the resistance it met with and the amount of bone ploughed in its passage. These experiments conclusively prove that the weight of a ball taken from a body after being fired, it having traversed a bone in its flight, is by no means evidence of its weight before firing; in other words, a ball always loses some lead when passing through bone. With the same rifle as that produced at the trial he made a series of experiments in the dissecting-room, endeavoring to make a bullet enter the skull at the same point and in nearly as possible the same direction as in the case of the murdered woman. In six such experiments there were varying losses of lead, all the bullets used being the same general weight. In two trials the distance was but ten feet from the muzzle, yet more lead was lost than in any of the other four. The least loss recorded took place at the longest distance, thirty-five feet. This in part accounts for the loss of lead, for at ten feet the bullet has not acquired its greatest penetrating power, for he showed by experiment that a 220-grain bullet fired at a human skull will lose more lead than was missing from the Billings bullet, thus disposing of the question raised by the defence that a ball could not have weighed 220 grains before being fired.