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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    The autophonic case was that of Private Edward Stone, 6th Dragoon Guards, who attempted suicide by dischareing a pistol under liis chin^ on the 16th of April, J860, at Aldershot. the ball comminuted the lower jaw, to the left of the symphysis, fractured the corresponding part of the upper jaw and zygoma, and lodged. On the 2nd of May the cartiidge paper was found loose within the mouth ; but the ball was not discovered till the_ 25th of July, more than four months after the wound, when, on making an incision in the pheek to reunite a sinus, it was found embedded in the lower maxilla. Necrosis and exfoliation of portion of tiie jaw, and of the outer angle of the orMt, occurred, but the vision of the eye was not destroyed. Partial anchylosis of the temporo-maxillary articulation, and consequent iin|iaired power of opening the mouth, led to'his being invalided on tlie 23rd of No- vember, 1860. Strong cicatricial bands within the cheek added to the limitation, of the motion. Union of the fractured lower jaw was perfect. This case is another instance of the influence of example in suicidal cases. The day ])re- viously to this attempt at suicide, a man of the same regin^ent, employed on the same duty (regimental police), had destroyed himself by a rifle; and on this occasion the remark was made by Private Stone, Don't be surprised if you hear the same of me one of these days ; but no attention was paid to it. They were both considered in their regiment to be steady soldiers, of good character and sober habits. Class 3.—Wounds of the Neck. Two cases were treated, both presenting features of particular interest. The first case is that of Private Idem Sands, 1st Battalion, 60th Regiment, wounded at Delhi on the 11th of September, 1857, by a musket ball, which entered just external to the right sterno mastoid muscle, passed outwards and backwards, and made its exit about tiie margin of the trapezius muscle. The wound is reported to have taken on an unhealthy action, by winch the cure was retarded ; but, when admitted into Fort Pitt, on July the 20th, 1858, the wound was healed, and, not being thoiiglit to be of a disqualifying extent, the man was sent to the depot of his regiment, to duty. On July the 26th, 1860, he was re-admitted as an invalid from Winchester, on account of inability to use his right arm properly. On examination, there was now found to be marked atropliy of tiie trapezius muscle, so that the scnpula projected from the posterior wal' of the t'lorax more than the scapula on the left side. The long scar reniainhig from the wound of exit was adherent to the skin and fascia, was tender to touch, and pain was felt shooting up the neck, and along the fore-arm to the points of the fingers. The supra-clavicular fossa became very dee]) when the arm was elevated, the cicatrix tense, and the scalenus could be distinctly felt, like a sharp rirlge. The arm could not be elevated above a right angle with the trunk. Pain and tingling was also stated to be felt in the arm in damp weather spontaneously, and this, and other symptoms, led to the belief of nerve involved In the cicatrix being the source of irritation. The patient had suffered severely from intermittent fever and splenitis at Peshawur. The second case was one of a ball passing between the trachea and ceso- pliagus, without leading to any permanent lesion in either oigan. The patient^ Sergeant Joseph Plnmford, 42nd Regiment, aged 28 years, was wounded at the attack of the Begum Kotee, Lucknow, on tlie 11th of March, 1858. Tlie projectile, a round musket ball, entered an inch and a half above the sternal end of the right clavicle, passed behind the trachea, and was excised on the opposite side of the neck, behind the acromial end of the left clavicle. The leading symptoms after the wound recorded, were : discharge of blood from the mouth ; aphonia, wliicli lasted for some days ; and the usual symptoms referable to injury of the nerves of the brachial plexus. According to the Sergeant's own statement, there was escape of air by the wound of entrance, indicative of an opening into the trachea, but this is not mentioned in any of the invaliding documents. No disphonia, nor disability connected with the jjart of the neck wounded, existed at the time of his arrival at Fort Pitt in April 1860 ; but partial loss of sensation, with depressed tem- perature of the hand and of all the fingers existed. The hand and fingers >\ ere permanently fixed in a straight position ; the thumb retained its normal
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