Report on gun-shot and sabre wounds of invalids sent to Fort Pitt during the years 1860-61 / by Thomas Longmore.

  • Longmore, Sir Thomas, 1816-1895.
Date:
[1863]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report on gun-shot and sabre wounds of invalids sent to Fort Pitt during the years 1860-61 / by Thomas Longmore. 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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    at Taranaki until August, when he was sent to Auckland, and from thence invalided to England. On his admission at Fort Pitt, on the 25th May, 1861, no indication of the presence of the h\i]let could be found. He was in good general health, had gained great power in the limb, and was able to walk without any diflaculty or uneasiness, with the aid of a stick. The scar of entrance was small, and beneath it was felt a very defined and sharply-margined aperture, through the fascia. The femur was shortened about one inch and a quarler. The second case was that of Private George Wilmot, 65th Regiment, aged 23 years, who was wounded at Taranaki, New Zealand, on the 6th of November, 1860. According to statement, he was lying on his left side, with his right leg slightly elevated, and was engaged in loading his rifle, when he was struck by a musket ball, which entered the outer aspect of his right thigh, two inches and a half above the knee joint. The ball pursued a course upwards, and slightly forwards, and lodged just below, and external to the troclianter major, from which situation it was excised. In its passage it fractured the femur, in the inferior portion of its middle third. Shortening from one inch and a half, to one and three quarters, had resulted. This invalid was admitted into Fort Pitt on the 3rd of December, 186J. The fracture was firmly united, and the motion of the knee joint was not at all impaired. The cicatrix of the wound of entrance was thickened, and slightly elevated, but no opening was perceptible in the fascia. No sequestrum of bone had ever come away. There was little doubt in my mind that this was not a case of true compound fracture, or, in other words, that there had never been any communication between the external wound and the wound of the bone. 1 do not think the fascia even had been penetrated, for I have never yet known an instance where a gun-shot penetration of fascia did not, as before remarked, leave evident indications of the injury. It appeared to me that in this instance the ball must have fractured the femur by the force of its first collision with the limb, and, without penetrating the deeper tissues, have been deflected by the impact snbcutaneously upwards to the trochanter. In addition to the absence of any slit in the fascia, the fact of no sequestrum having been detached, and especially the direction taken by the projectile, supported this view of the case. The two cases in which the tibia and bones of the foot were fractured, do not call for special remark. Class 10. No cases of this class were admitted. Class 11.—Wounds of Joints. The following case of perforation of the left wrist joint is so far worthy of notice, as showing how extensive an injury of the articulating structures may occur, and the liand be yet preserved. It will also serve to show, that though motion only of a most limited extent may be retained, still that tins may be of value to the possessor. In this instance the rifle was discharged almost in immediate contact with the joint injured. All the movements of the hand and wrist were lost, but the use of the metacarpal bones of the thumb and little finger were preserved, so that they could be brought into apposition. The following were the notes taken on the invalid's admission at Fort Pitt, on May the 3rd, 1861:— Private William Q,ninn, 44th Regiment, aged 34 years, when assembling for morning parade, on the 16th of March, 1858, having supported his firelock against a wall, was in the act of holding his hand over the muzzle, accordmg to statement, to save it from falling, when it went off, and a ball passed through his hand. He acknowledged that he had been drinking for several days before the accident, and that in coiisi^quence he had been so stupified f>s not to be able to account for the piece having been loaded ; he supposed he must have done it without thinking what he was about. He was tried by court martial, ami the court found him guilty of self mutilation. On examination, at the time of the accident, it was found that the ball had passed through the wrist jomt. Con-