Wounds by Blank Charges.—Experience has shown that no matter with what the piece is charged, it is capable, when fired close by, of producing a wound which may prove fatal. Thus a gun loaded with wadding or gunpowder only may cause death. A portion of clothing may be carried into the wound and lead to death from hemorrhage, or death may occur from many secondary causes, such as tetanus or sepsis. Accidents so frequently occur from weapons discharged in sport, not loaded with ball or shot, that it is worth while to bear this in mind. It has been observed, for instance, that persons attempting to commit suicide have forgotten to put a bullet in the pistol, nevertheless the discharge of the weapon into the mouth has sufficed, from the wadding alone, to produce a considerable laceration and hemorrhage (Taylor). Many fatal accidents have taken place by the discharge of wadding from cannon. LaChese has ascertained by experiment that a piece charged with gunpowder alone is capable of producing a penetrating wound somewhat resembling that produced by gunshot, when the piece is large and fired within six feet of the body (Ann. d’Hygiene, 1836, p. 368). This arises from unexploded grains of powder acting as pellets of small shot. Sweet has experimented with pistols loaded with gunpowder and wadding in order to determine the effect of their discharge at different distances. At twelve inches he found that the clothing was lacerated and the skin abraded, but the wadding did not penetrate; at six inches the clothes were lacerated and the wadding penetrated to the depth of one-half inch; at one and one-half inches from the chest the wadding passed into the thoracic cavity between the ribs, and at a second experiment carried away a portion of the ribs.
It is probable that an ordinary wadding such as loosely wrapped paper, rag, or similar material, especially as prepared by one not accustomed to military use of a weapon, would not produce a wound which would resemble that made by a bullet, and it is doubtful whether such a wound could be produced at a greater distance than six inches from the body.
It is on record that in Paris, in 1858, a circus cannon of four inches bore, loaded with three ounces of grain powder retained by a wad of old theatre bills loosely folded together and rammed home with only moderate force, was discharged in the direction of the boxes at a distance of about one hundred and fifty feet. A man seated in one of these boxes opposite the muzzle of the gun, leaning forward, his arms crossed upon the handle of his umbrella, had his arm broken above the elbow immediately upon its discharge. Several portions of wadding were found beneath the place where the man sat, but no marks existed upon his clothing nor upon the anterior part of the arm, which must have been inaccessible to any projectile that did not first strike the forearm. It was concluded that the fracture had been caused by the violent and sudden starting of the man backward, which must have brought his arm against the hard part of the partition. An experiment tried with the cannon proved that any wadding that could be made with paper was dispersed in passing, or lost all power of mischief, at much less distance than one hundred and twenty feet (Annales d’Hygiene, 1859, p. 420, Wharton and Stille).
The Mannlicher Rifle.—It may be of interest here to note the effects of the rifle-bullets used in the most recently invented improved arms. The last new projectile used in the German army, 1892, with the Mannlicher rifle, has an inner core of lead inclosed in a casing of steel or firm metal, which prevents the lead, even when softened by heat, from becoming deformed and enlarged by contact. The weight of the bullet is much less than any of the old, but to its higher rate of velocity and its pointed shape, which is preserved, must be ascribed its greater perforating power. Owing to this immense velocity and the small surface of contact, it meets with little resistance on striking a person, has no time to stretch the various tissues it encounters, causes little or no commotion of the neighboring parts, and merely punches a hole, carrying the contused elements before it clear out of the wound without seriously damaging the surrounding wall of the bullet-track. This absence of contusion must lead to more frequent deaths from hemorrhage, while when this arm is used we shall hear very little of deflection or deviation of the bullet from its path, since it has sufficient power to pass directly through any part of the body which it may meet on its way. The result in battle will be a reduction of the list of wounded, but a terrible augmentation of that of the dead.
IDENTITY FROM A FLASH OF GUNPOWDER.
Taylor states the following: “Among the singular questions which have arisen out of this subject is the following: whether the person who fires a gun or pistol during a dark night can be identified by means of the light produced during the discharge. This question was first negatively answered by a class in physical science in France, whereas later a case tending to show that their decision was erroneous was subsequently reported by Fodere. A woman positively swore that she saw the face of the prisoner, who fired at another during the night, surrounded by a kind of glory, and that she was thereby enabled to identify him. This statement was confirmed by the deposition of the wounded party. Desgranges, of Lyons, performed many experiments on this subject, and he concluded that away from every source of light the prisoner who fired the gun might be identified within a moderate distance; if the flash were very strong, the smoke very dense, and the distance great, the person firing the piece could not be identified. The question was raised in England in the case of Reg. v. White at the Croydon Autumn Assizes, 1839. A gentleman was shot at while driving home on a dark night, being wounded in the leg. When he saw the flash of the gun he saw that the piece was levelled toward him, and the light of the flash enabled him to recognize at once the features of the accused. In cross-examination he said he was quite sure he could see the prisoner and was not mistaken as to his identity; but the accused was skilfully defended and he was acquitted. A similar case was tried at the Lewes Lent Assizes, 1862, Reg. v. Stapley. The prisoner shot at the prosecutor on a dark December evening, and the latter swore that he distinctly saw the prisoner by the flash of the gun and could identify him by the light on his features. His evidence was corroborated and the man was convicted. A case is also quoted, Rex v. Haines, in which some police officials were shot at by a highwayman during a dark night. One of these stated that he could distinctly see from the flash of the pistol that the robber rode a dark-brown horse of remarkable shape, and that he had since identified the horse at a stable in London. He also was positive that the prisoner had on a rough brown great-coat.
There seems to be enough evidence in this direction to show that identification under these circumstances is occasionally possible.
GENERAL MEDICO-LEGAL CONSIDERATIONS.
The result of the wonderful advance in the practice of surgery made during the past fifteen years has been in a large measure to revolutionize the treatment of gunshot wounds, and inasmuch as the result of many homicidal attempts will depend in large measure upon what the surgeon can do for the victim of assault, it may not be amiss to very briefly epitomize in this place something of what modern surgeons believe with regard to the best treatment of bullet-wounds, expressed in a general way. They have learned, among other things, that the harm which a bullet does is done by it during its flight, and that after it has come to a stop it is, per se, an almost invariably harmless foreign body. This is practically always the case unless it has carried in with it foreign material which may serve as a source of septic infection.
In time past there has always been a strong feeling, which had, however, nothing scientific to justify it, that every gunshot wound was a poisoned one. Of late, since bacteriology has attained the proportion of a science, it has been held that bullets were necessarily sterilized by the heat of the discharge of powder behind them. Very recently Dr. B. Von Beck, Medical Director of the 14th German Army Corps, has made experiments upon the amount of heat imparted to leaden and other bullets after firing. After making an allowance for specific heat and the conductivity of the different metals used, he found that even when the projectiles encountered resistance from three to four times greater than that offered by the human body the results were as follows: Temperature of leaden bullets of .45 calibre, when recovered, 69° C.; of .30 calibre, covered with steel, when recovered, 78° C.; of .30 calibre, covered with copper, when recovered, 101° C. He states that these experiments disprove the theory that certain lesions in wounds can be in any way attributed to the heat imparted by the bullet.