A Treatise on Gunshot Wounds

Book excerpt: Gunshot wounds consist of injuries from missiles projected by the force of explosion. As the name implies, this class of wounds is ordinarily restricted to injuries resulting from fire-arms; but it should be remembered that wounds possessing the same leading characteristics may result from objects impelled by any sudden expansive force of sufficient violence. Injuries from stones, in the process of blasting rocks, or from fragments of close vessels burst asunder by the elastic power of steam, offer familiar examples of wounds of a like nature with those from gunshot. In the following article, however, gunshot wounds will be considered as they are met with in the operations of warfare.