Volume 3

Descriptive catalogue of the pathological specimens contained in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of England.

  • Royal College of Surgeons of England. Museum
Date:
1882-
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Descriptive catalogue of the pathological specimens contained in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    14/568 (page 4)
    2132. Section of the tusk of an Elephant, in the interior of which it is probable that a bullet is imbedded. Both the cut surfaces exhibit a large quantity of imperfectly formed ivory, distinguishable by its yellowish colour, its uneven outline, and the absence of the regularity of texture seen in the adjacent healthy ivory. On the exterior of the tusk is a cavity indicating the spot at which the ball entered. Hunterian. 2133. Section of the tusk of an Elephant, wounded by a bullet which passed through one of the walls of that part of the tusk wfhich was within the alveolus, traversed the pulp, and was found in it nearly opposite the part at which it entered. The hole at which the ball entered the outer surface of the tusk is smoothly closed with new dentine ; and on the interior of the pulp-cavity, where the ball entered, there is a large irregularly knobbed projecting mass of new ivorv. Hunterian. 2134. Sections of part of a tusk in which an iron bullet is im¬ bedded. The unhealthy ivory immediately surrounding the bullet is intimately united with the rest of the tusk. The external surface of the tusk where the bullet penetrated appears healthy, but on its inner surface there is a deep depression, something like that of a cicatrix, with narrow grooves radiating towards its centre. There are two other cavities in the tusk, the contents of which have been re¬ moved ; they are both lined by membrane. [Both the sections are warped, and their surfaces hardly correspond.] Presented by Thomas Blizard, Esq. 2135. The base of an Elephants tusk, irregularly shaped and having numerous large conical processes and nodules of ivory growing from the walls of the pulp-cavity towards the jaw. A section of a cavity, in which a bullet was lodged, is shown ; and much of the adjacent ivory has an unhealthy texture. Presented by Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles.