On gunshot wounds of the thorax : and the treatment pursued for them in the Crimea, contrasted with that which was followed in former campaigns / by George Lawson.

  • George Lawson
Date:
[1858]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On gunshot wounds of the thorax : and the treatment pursued for them in the Crimea, contrasted with that which was followed in former campaigns / by George Lawson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    alarm in the patient's mind than those which, however horri- ble, are exposed to his view. I imagine that another cause of the great collapse which is witnessed amongst so many of the wounded may be accounted for in the following manner. A man when he is under fire, whether in a general action or in the trenches, has his nervous energies in a state of the highest tension. He is in a condition of the greatest excite- ment. Cool, as regards his exterior, he may be, and is, capable both of giving, receiving and obeying commands, yet his mind is in a state of expectant attention, he is performing his duty under a high nervous pressure. I think even the greatest stoic will acknowledge that the buzz of a round shot or the twing of a bullet passing over his head or in close proximity to his person produces a tumul- tuous action of the heart, or, as I have heard men say,f an inde- scribable all-overish sensation,' which lasts as long as these unpleasant sounds continue to grate on one's ears. Suddenly he is wounded, and as we know that in all human affairs the greatest depression follows the greatest excitement, so it is in gunshot wounds, and this depression, coupled with the anxiety which is usually manifested by the patient as to the severity and danger of the injury which he has received will account for a large amount of the collapse which is always seen in such cases. Let us now consider what are the objects we have to aim at in the treatment of wounds of the thorax. In a gunshot injury of this region, whether the lung is wounded by the ball having passed through it, or whether it has lodged, we have still a wound communicating with the external air. Along its track the tissues are bruised, broken down, and their vitality greatly destroyed. Inflammation and
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