The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-05-03
MAusER BULLET BURNS.

| A curious case of possible burn from a bullet was shown in wound received
 by a corporal in the Queens regiment.
 The bullet, possibly a spent one, had struck the shaft of the tibia close to the
 crest transversely, and apparently had drilled the bone There was a little ir- regularity of the bone, and a fragment may have been displaced Close to the exit wound was mark resembling a burn the extent and shape of a bullet. The patients account was that he had felt himself hit and felt something burning his leg. On removing the put tie the bullet was found lying under heath 1t. The man stated that it was fred hot" perhaps pardonable exag
 geration. The bullet, at any rate, was too hot to hold in the hand without pain. The bullet was not a ricochet in appearance. Another patient gave a somewhat similar account. In this in- stance the bullet entered one inch to the right side of the eighth dorsal spine, and made it's exit three inches below the clavicle on the same side without traversing the thoracic cavity. The bullet dropped inside the shirt and burned the skin. The bullet was found inside the clothes day or two later. Such accounts have to be received with a certain amount of caution, but un- doubtedly the mark on the skin of the abdomen did resemble burn.
 It is often supposed popularly that the temperature of bullets is greatly raised by the friction of the air. The supposi- tion does not seem to rest on an experi- mental basis. Arrest of movement would develop heat, of course, but the prodigious range of the small bore bull let shows that the friction is exceeding ly slight. Markers at rifle butts are familiar with the fact that ricochet shots (which are recognized by the pc culiar hum they make in passing through the air, and which often fall dead by the shelters or drop back of the targeD, if picked up at once are warm or even hot; but in such cases the movement has been violently arrested. It is possible that some heat might be developed by the arrest of the bullet by the clothing, but in such case the missile cannot have been travelling with any great velocity. A ricochet shot loses the spin in its longitudinal axis eHdt u dtquh OS TIT Peiooii6 tIIOuRU llC rifled barrel, but as 1t glazes off after the impact it may revolve on trans verse axis, turning over and over in it's flight. It is, therefore, unlikely to make the small wounds of entrance and exit characteristic of the perfect small bore bullet. Moreover, the nickel sheath of the bullet will probably split up as the bullet strikes the earth and bounds up or glances from 1t.
 It is occasionally stated that the cia- trical cord resulting from the passage of a small bore bullet through soft tis- tues is due to the cauterizing action of the bullet. Such view iS hardly to be taken seriously. The cicatrix resem- bles no doubt that which might be caused by passing thick galvanic wire through the tissues and then raising it to temperature sufficient to burn the tissues. But the cicatrix of a bullet wound is not produced in that way The velocity with which it passes through the tissues is too great to allow time for any cauterizing action, even if the bullet were ae white heat--British Medical Journal.