The Savannah morning news., 1902-12-02

act of infiicting the death injury. In
the case in question the ball penetrated
TO the opposite skull wall, cracking the
bone, and was further distorted and
mashed out of original shape by this
forecful contact.
The metal of the bullet must be taken
into consideration. A steel bullet or
a steel-jacketed bullet as sometimes
fired from a rifle is more apt to pass
entirely through the body at a certain
range than is the lead bullet. The
thoroughly lead bullet or the soft-nosed
bullet, a steel projectile with a lead
head, spreads at the tip, or, technical
ly speaking, mushrooms" on contact
with an object. It, therefore. makes
a larger wound of ingress than the
steel affair and a much larger wound
of egress
Blackened edges of wounds are more
likely to have been caused by a lead
bullet, although the ball with a lead
tip could also produce this result. Re-
garding powder stains, smokeless or
otherwise, nothing of great value is to
be gained when the shooting occurs
at distance greater than twelve or
fifteen feet. At the trial referred to
Dr.. Keirle stated that from powder
marks on the face he judged that the
shot had been fired at a distance of
not more than three feet, Whit oon-
clusion was later backed up by the
assertion made on the stand by the
prisoner himself.
The velocity of the bullet may af-
feet the nature of wounds both of en-
trance and of exit. In the Spanish
American war there We're numerous
cases in which the Mauser bullets of
the SpaniardS went clear through the
bodies of our soldiers, inficting a
wound that was slight and readily heal
ed. The velocity had the effect of
making the bullets pierce the flesh
without making ragged wounds at eth
er entrance or exit. A wound of en-
trance, even in this connection, is i'm
variably smaller than the bullet, which
is due to the involuntary contraction
Immediately after the ball enters the
flesh. The fiattening of a bullet by
striking bone might tend to increase
its diameter if it was originally one
quarter of an inch in size to two-thirds
of an inch and thus cause jagged exit
wound.
In actual experience by the local
hospital surgeons, most of whom have
had to deal with wounds made by lead
bullets, mostly from revolver shots, it
mas been demonstrated that the entry
point is usually as small as the bullet.
and often smaller. The ridges of the
skin are folded in after the bullet and
the flesh about the wound is not torn.
A leaden bullet will lose appreciably
in weight by being fired, and the form
of the barrel may tend to reduce it's
size. In rifle some of the lead is
taken off by the grooves. The fric-
ton also heats and tends TO partially
melt the outside of the ball, and be-
cause of this IT changes its sheipe in
the air.
One peculiar fact about bullet is
that 1t will very often make wound
of entry smaller than the prejectile
itself, even in so brittle a substance
as glass. This point was of vital i'm
portance in a noted New York case
where woman was killed by bullet
fired through a pane of glass. Her
husband was arrested and part of his
defense was that a ball from his rifle
could not have killed her, because the
hole in the glass was smaller than the
caliber of his bullet. A series of ex-
periments was made, in which bullets
from rifle of that size were fired
through pane of glass, making a hole
so small that a bullet of natural size
could not pass through it.
Another strange fact about a bullet
is ahat it will often pass through in
tervening clothing, making a hole that
can hardly be noticed, and yet carry
on its point circular piece of CLOTH
The carrying of bits of clothing, hair
or dirt into wounds in such a manner
greatly enhances the danger of peri
tonitis. Were it not for this latter con-
tact the bullet would not be nearly so
dangerous, as its rapid flight and heat
ing makes 1t practically sterile.