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.

    1135/1268 (page 1099)
    whole weapon, so to speak, is discharged. In real truth, however, the distinction is somewhat arbitrary, since in the rocket class, there is a tube, but this goes with the shot or shell or other contents, at least a part of the distance. As these will detain us but a short time, we will deal with them first. Rochets are of great antiquity, and are said to have been invented by the Chinese. Tippoo Sahib used them against the English. Sir W. Congreve first made them of iron, and under the name of Congreve Rockets, they were long used in the British service. He employed shell-heads, and heads filled with inflammable composition, for incendiary purposes. All these rockets were kept head foremost in their flight, by the use of a stick which acted on the same principle as the feathers of an arrow. Grooves are now made in the side of the rocket, and in order to dispense with the use of a stick, a rapid rotation is imparted to it by means of a triple shield at the base, the invention of Mr. Hale. The patterns now used in the British service are 9-inch and 24-inch. Though they can be fired from the ground, they often are fired ' from a tube. Used to frighten horses, and to set fire to powder maga- zines and other erections, they are generally filled with very explosive materials, small shells which splinter in exploding, and easily combus- tible substances. The injuries inflicted by them on persons will be (a), burns ; (£>), lacerated and contused wounds ; (c), penetrating or perforat- ing wounds. These will not materially differ from those inflicted by firearms proper. Besides these, there are life-rockets, used to send a line to a ship and establish communication, bet ween wrecked ships or those in danger and the shore, and signal rockets, filled with coloured stars and other contrivances for giving notice of their presence. Torpedoes are cases filled with explosives, so contrived as to explode when struck by a ship’s keel, or at a given signal by a time-fuse, or by an electric spark. Essentially destructive weapons, they are adapted chiefly for defence. They have been little used in actual warfare. The case of the Bremerlmven Explosion, to be mentioned presently, showed almost dia- bolical ingenuity in adapting clockwork to the atrocious purpose of destroying a passenger ship and all her cargo in order to get the insu- rance. If a torpedo did not utterly destroy a ship’s crew, the injuries would consist, as in the case of rockets, of burns; lacerated, contused, and punctured wounds, which, as in the case of wounds from fireworks and explosives generally, are aggravated in many cases by foreign bodies, particles of gunpowder, or of the explosive composition, bits of paper and paste-board, particles of wood, or of clothing, &c., &c., which tend to irritate the wound, to promote unhealthy inflammation, and retard the healing process. [Consult the articles “ Rocket ” and “ Torpedo,” in the “ English,” and “ Popular,” and “ Chambers’ ” Encyclopaedias.] Returning to our first division of firearms proper, these may be conve- niently divided into easily portable or hand weapons [pistols, revolvers, carbines, muskets, rifles, fowling-pieces], and artillery or larger weapons, used for ships, fortifications, and field-service, which require several men or horses to carry them from place to place. [Guns, cannons, mortars, howitzers, &c.] In the first class, or weapons carried in the hand, we have in all what may be called a body, and a soul or essential part. The body consists of a stock, and in many military weapons, of a bayonet, and of sundry accessories. The soul consists of the tube, which holds the charge, and of the lock, trigger, and other contrivances, for discharging the missiles.