The Arizona sentinel. [volume] (Arizona City [Yuma], Yuma County, A.T. [Ariz.]) 1872-1911, 1890-02-15
A STRIKING NARRATIVE.
How the Wind of Cannon Ball CaI
Wound and Bruise.

How the Wind of a Cannon Ball Can
! Wound and Bruise.
Sir Robert Rawlinson, K. c. B., sends
us the following striking narrative:
ION the morning of the 10th of June,
1855, was riding in company with some
military officers on their way to the
trenches before Sebastopol, and enter
ing the ravine known as The Valley of
the Shadow of Death" when in the act
of turning round to go back was swept
down with my horse. by a 42-pound Rus
sian steel shot. Tlfe., shot passed in
front of me, from lest 10 right, cutting
the reins out of my4efthaad and passing
through the thin jacket underMy arm. 1
had my right-hand trousers pocket
small leather purse with Steel rim-toSit
and little silver in it. This purse
bruised the strong cloth of the pocket
and my flannel shirt, as also the crest of
the pelvis. My own impression was that
the shot had struck me full in the abdo-
men, and that L was cut in two. 1
tainted and my wound bled copiously,
and was taken to the nearest tenn
porary hospital. Now, as to the wind of
this shot. 1t could have had nothing
to do with my wound. AS ex-
planned, the shot traversed across the
abdomen and met with nothing solid
but the purse and money in my pocket,
and the contact was sufficient to break
the strong cloth of the pocket under the
purse-not above 1.-THE flannel shirt,
and the flesh and bone of the pelvis.
And remember, so slight must have
been the touch of the shot on my clothes
that they were not abraded or marked;
the thin summer coat being perforated,
but the outer edge not broken. How
could the wind perform this freak? The
full front force of this shot, of only 900
feet per second, would have a striking
power of about 10000 pounds, but, can
noning on me in front, the force or blow
might be only equal to a severe blow by
a man striking below the belt. If this
shot had passed over any more solid por-
ton of the body, as the head or the
back, sudden death would have been
the result; but as it barely touched the
clothes upon the abdomen the effect was
lessened. At all events, was severely
wounded by a fortytwo pound round
shot. and most certainly not by the wind
of it; and by reason of the grand surgery
of the late Sir James Ferguson l am
now alive to tell the tale
A medical correspondent quotes Prof.
Sir I. Longmore upon the matter thus:
The true explanation of the appearances
presented in those cases which were
formerly called wind contusions" APP
pears to rest in the peculiar direction or
degree of obliquity with which the
missile has happened to impinge against
the yielding and elastic skin, together
with the position of the internal organs
injured between this missile and other
hard substances in their neigh borhood.
The surface itself is not directly torn or
cut into, because the impact of the pro-
jectile has not been sufficiently direct to
effect an opening; but the parts beneath
are crushed by the pressure to which
they have been subjected between the
combined influence of the weight and
of the shot on one side and
some hard resisting substance on the
other. There are no cases have seen
DR. read of, our correspondent adds, that
,an not be satisfactorily explained on
the theory given above.-Pan Mall
ia zetta