The herald., 1898-06-29
TERRIBLE WOUNDS
THE NEW RIFLES SHOOT LIKE
CANNON
No Question as to the Effectiveness of
Small CALDER Bullets-Reports
Of Surgeons

ON BOARD THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
DISPATCH BOAT DAUNTLESS, MAR
me CAMP, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, via
Port Antonio, Jamaica. June 2O.-Ever
since the introduction of the modern high
power, small caliber rifle among the armies
of the world, there has been intense in
terest In the medical profession, as well
as among laymen to know the effect of
the arm as to the nature of the wounds
it would inflict and proportion of mortality
to wounded.
DR.. Orlando Duckern of the American
Medical Association, who is here to study
the practical aspects of battlefield surgery,
as well as tropical diseases and their
treatment, went over the battlefield of
Cusco mountain with Surgeon Edgar of
the marine corps and examined the bodies
there sight of the battlefield gave the
impression of a bigger fight than had been
conveyed by the cold official statement of
the case at Camp McCalla last Tuesday.
The additional bodies found raised the es-
innate of Spanish killed from As, the first
days count, to more than IS. Many bull
let-pierced straw hats Uttered the ravine
where the Spaniards made their last dis
astrous retreat. The narrow glen was lit
orally covered with empty Mauser shells
for half a mile, while cactus plants were
plentifuly peppered with the tell-tale bull
let holes and trees were SCARED and twigs
were hanging in profusion along the close
grown foot path
Only eight bodies were found in condi-
ton to examine. The doctors brought back
two bullet-punctured Spanish skulls.
lii nf 1,a bod Loo Nv
Duckern said:
1.-THE effectiveness Of rifles of small cal
iber but of great initial velocity like the
Krag- Jorgensen, ee-Metford, or Mauser,
for instance, should be regarded as set
tied We accept the results of the Cusco
mountain battle on June IA. One of our
soldiers received a flesh wound in the LEFT
arm at a distance of 200 yards. The bail
struck just below the elbow as the arm
was being extended. The wound at the
entrance was no larger than the bullet,
but the exit was terrible laceration, so
great in fact that it was supposed until a
minute examination had been made that
an explosive bullet had been used.
"Of the Spanish soldiers examined, one
had sustained comminuted fracture of
the fifth and six ribs at the anterior curv-
allure. The soldier was evidently STOPPING
and running when Struck by the fatal bull
let, the ball entering the back below the
tenth rib and ranging upward, striking the
inner side of the sixth and the outer side
of the fifth rib, shattering them for the
space of two inches.
1.-THE second was a negro Spanish guer-
rilla with the usual thick negro skull The
wound at the entrance was near the middle
of the left parietal bone, tearing away the
outer table for quarter of an inch around
it, but leaving the inner table intact except
a clean cut hole the size of the bullet. The
ball passed out through the right orbit
tearing away half of the floor and inner
wall There was complete longitudinal
fracture of the skull.
1.-The third Spaniard was one of the regu-
lars judging from his uniform, and man
about 20 years old. He was evidently
stopping forward and facing our troops Is
the ball entered the right frontal bone two
inches anterior to the parietal suture and
two and a half inches above the temporal
articula ton, traversing the brain longitude
nally passing out through the right side of
the occpital bone on a line of and midway
between the mastoid process and occipita
protuberance. The wound at exit was irreg-
ular in shape, but one by seven-eighths of
an inch in size, damaged a little both the
inner and outer table of the skull.
1.-The wound at entrance was clean cut
and the size of the bullet so far as the inner
table was involved, but along the lower
margin extended three-fourths of an inch
on either side and one inch below the en-
trance the outer table was completely torn
chise A complete longitudinal fracture
extended from the roof of the right orbit
through the frontal bone, passing half an
inch above the wound at the entrance to
two-thirds the distance of the right par
fetal, the other extending downward and
outward to the middle and posterior mar
gin of the bone. In both cases of wounds
of the skull the longitudinal fracture did
not communicate with the wound at the en-
trance or exit. In both cases the fracture was
parallel to the course of the ball and COM
plete. A thin bladed knife was passed
through the fractures. The shooting was
from 600 to 500 yards and the fractures along
the line of greatest pressure.
whether a ball passing through the
head from side to side will cause fracture
at right angle to the long diameter of the
head or not, further investigation will dem
onstrate. The bursting of the skull is no
doubt due to the great velocity of the ball
through the brain substance, not giving
sufficient time for cell compression.
Another fact yet remains to be proven
whether the mortality is greater from the
use of modern or the old style rifles In
the case of our own troops the fatality was
greater to the proportion of wounded than
formerly. However, that will require fur
Their demonstration, as the results of the
14th may have been purely accidental as to
fatalities