A handy-book of forensic medicine and toxicology / by W. Bathurst Woodman and Charles Meymott Tidy.

Date:
1877
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A handy-book of forensic medicine and toxicology / by W. Bathurst Woodman and Charles Meymott Tidy. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

    1134/1268 (page 1098)
    Op Gunshot Wounds, or Injuries from Firearms, Fireworks, and other Weapons, Missiles and Explosives. Of the Weapons themselves, and of the General Theory of Projectiles as hearing upon Practical Points. Although the laws which govern the flight of projectiles in vacuo, are tolerably simple, being founded, as we shall presently see, upon the Newtonian laws of motion and the effects of gravity; yet the conse- quences of the resistance of the air, of differences in the shape and weight of the missile or projectile; of the amount of gunpowder or other substance which is to furnish the impelling or propelling power ; and the effects of the accuracy, and amount of rifling of the bore of the weapon, as well as of the length of its barrel, or, in other words, of the tube; all tend to complicate the practical problems. And the re- sistance of the air may be still ftyther modified by the pressure and velocity of the prevailing winds ; whilst the degree to which the missile or shot penetrates depends not ouly on its mass and velocity or momentum, but upon the nature of the resisting material. So that in rifle-shooting, and gunnery of every description, we really have complicated problems. All that we can pretend to do for our readers, is to glean from practical works some few of the results of experience, and to set these alongside of the theory. This is necessary in order to a right understanding of the peculiarities of gun-shot wounds. Under this term we include the wounds and injuries caused by the discharge of every kind of firearm [and even of an air-gun]; from the tiny saloon pistol, which is little more than a dangerous toy, to the “Woolwich Infant,” or 81-ton gun, or those still larger monsters of 100 and 200 tons, which Armstrong and Whitworth in England, Krupp in Germany, and Dahlgren in America, are said to be making. We cannot even enumerate all the names of these weapons, or of the missiles they discharge, nor is it necessary.* In order to simplify the matter for practical purposes, we may first divide the weapons themselves into two or three classes. The first broad distinction is into firearms proper, or those in which the missile is discharged from a tube of longer or shorter dimensions, including all the weapons mentioned in the previous note; and fireworks or missiles of the rocket and torpedo class in which there is no tube, except that of the cartridge, and the * Artillery, a general name for heavy guns; Arquebuse; Basilisk; Blunder- buss ; Bombard; Caliver ; Cannon, a general name for large guns, smoothbore or rifled ; Carronade; Carbine, a name for a short musket or rifle ; Culverine; Falconet; Field-piece ; Fire-lock ; Fowling-piece ; Fusil; Gun, a name given alike to duck-guns and other sporting weapons, and to heavy ship and field-pieces, and the large guns used in forts ; Gingall, or Jingall; Howitzer; Lintstock, or Linstock ; Matchlock ; Mitrailleuse ; Mortar, used to fire bomb-shells, Ac. ; Musket ; Musketoon ; Paixhan [gun] ; Pistol ; Piece ; Petercro ; Petronel ; Petard ; Pederera ; Rifle [the Minie, Chassepot, Needle-gun, Enfield, Jacob, Martini-Henry, Lancaster, Whitworth, are the principal modern forms] ; Repeater; Revolver [forms of pistol combinations, of which Adams’, Colts’, and Dickinson s, are some of the best known]—are a few of the names. Amongst the missiles, shots, and explosive bodies, either discharged by these, or independently, are, Orsini and other Bombs ; Shell and Shot of all sizes ana shapes, solid and hollow ; such as Ball, Grape-shot, Canister-shot, Chain-shot, Ac., Bullets of all sorts and sizes [spherical, conical, hexagonal, Ac., Ac.] ; binge, Grenades; Carcass ; Rocket j Congreve ; Shrapnell; Langrange; Torpedoes j Small-Shot; Cartridges of various kinds, Ac., Ac.