A dissertation on gun-shot wounds / by Charles Bell.

  • Charles Bell
Date:
1814
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A dissertation on gun-shot wounds / by Charles Bell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    OF GUN-SHOT WOUNDS. Z^ established, and the slough which plugged the ^und protrudes. The dead parts have separated, but they still remain in the wound a source of irritation, while they at the same time obstruct the discharge. From the seventh to the tenth day the slough (that is, the dead ceiluiar membrane,) hangs from the wound like a piece of dirty lint or chewed paper ; and although there be a zone of inflamma- tion around the orifice of the wound, there is still an indolent character in it. Mr. Hunter conceived that gun-shot wounds were first scarified to take away bones and extraneous bodies, and that after- wards scarification was continued when the occa- sion was forgotten. I believe that the idea of scarifying these wounds arose from the apparent jndolence, and the slow progress they make, which surgeons thought would be accelerated by giv- ing passage to the sloughs. However that may be, scarifying wounds will be of little service in re- moving this cause of delay. Among the soldiers from Spain, I have seen some M'hose wounds were scored, as if in religious ceremony, but the cuts were healed, while the narrow wounds remained full of slough. When the discharge is free, the wound by and bye clears itself of the sloughs, and the granula- tions soon shew themselves. Then the wound re- tains no character of gun-shot wound, unless its depth and narrowness. But as now its surface is alive and sensible in all its extent, if any piece of 4;]pth p;' sharp point of bone remain^ they keep up m