Los Angeles herald., 1905-05-15
BULLETS JAPANESE USE
They Are Accurately Fired but Not
Deadly

From the London Telegraph.
| The japanese have merlted well of
their enemies for their humanity in
dealing death on the battlefield. Their
bullets, say the Russian surgeons, are,
if not precisely harmless, at least the
next best thing to that-they form the
mildest kind of missile that has ever
yet been hurled from rifle. One of
the consequences is that a number of
wounds which were formerly mortal
are now healed and forgotten in n few
! days. Another is that the number Of
! Russians who quit the hospital for the
battlefield is greater than was ever
witnessed In any war before. Bless
ings on the little Japs for their tiny
| little bullets say the Cossacks and
Caucasians.
I'm the sanitary train we have as
| founding cases of wounds healed"
writes a surgeon; 1.-THE character of the
| hurt surprises us, and for the rapidity
with which the soldier recovers-well.
| it is hard to ask anyone to believe it
who has not actually seen it. Verify,
their bullets are humane.
wounds caused by bullets which
enter the chest and go through the
back are of frequent occurrence. The
patients recover rapidly. Take, for
instance, Private Kurtoff of the Third
East Siberian Rifles. He was shot at
-Fang-Kao on June Is. The bull
let's entered his lungs. For less than
| ten days blood was detected in his
saliva, but soon all symptoms had
gone, the wounds were cicatrized, and
the brave warrior is himself once more
and back on the field as active as ever.
Prince Kuless had hole made in his
liver, but he, too, has already begun
| to forget that he ever had O wound
| there. On the same battlefield a pri-
vate of the rhirty-fourth East Siberian
regiment named Bulgakoff received a
mild Japanese bullet, which passed
through one of his lungs and his
diaphragm. injured his liver and went
out at the spinal column. He was
picked up, cared for and cured, and
now he is on his way to Russia to take
a rest.
| 'VilkoviJch is the name of a soldier
of the Third East Siberian regiment
who has had wonderful experience to
| look back upon. His bullet found it's
billet when he was lying behind the in
trenchments at Wa-Fang gKao ON June
15. 1t cut its way through his shoulder,
between the collarbone and the shoul-
der blade. passed through his lungs
penetrated the diaphragm and the alb
domen, damaged the intestines and
went out. The soldier was fortnight
under treatment, and is now on the
warpath once more"
Here is a scrap of dialogue between
an officer and his soldiers which gives
an idea of the views taken by Russians
on Japanese bullets:
In what battle were you wounded %
AT Wa-Fang-Kao. on the 18TH your
honor" where were you hurt?" I'm
my head. ibid the bullet stay?" mo,
your honor: it went right through"
Tho dnptNr
amined the skull. 1t was quite true.
Two Scared orifices were there; the
one through which the missile had en-
| tered was on the left side of the head;
the other In the neck.
How did it happen?" he inquired.
1--WE were behind the earthworks your
honor. when the bullet struck me-"
"Well. and then-you fell?" Not at
all, your honor. 1 got up on my feet
for we were all.lying down-and then
crawled off backward toward the am
bulance tent. After that L felt bad
pain in my head, and the blood
streamed down my face When I had
gone ten PAGES or so / dropped sense
| less, but perhaps it was because both
my legs were wounded also" "Well,
and then you came to, | suppose?" mo,
| your honor, l did not. / felt a racking
pain when | first knew where / was,
and lay a fortnight in the hospital in
high fever. raving." And how are you
feeling now?" "All right your honor,
only when the weather is bad have a
slight headache
"Now. bullet in the head" remarks
a Russian physician. who is collecting
data on the surgical aspect of the pres
ent war. "a bullet in the head which
| pierces the brain is certain death be-
yond remedy. But here we have case
in which the missile actually went
through the medulla oblangata, and yet
the man who had received this wound
and a cracked skull was smiling and
complaining of "a slight headache when
the weather is bad All the men in
hospital have tiny wounds, smaller
than a threepennv bit. A mere red
stain. nothing more. The soldiers
laugh and say: When we go back to
our villages they won't ever believe we
have been wounded. They'll tell us
we've been shamming.'"
The medical investigator, leaving
those cases to examine others, then
called upon q captain who had been in
the thick of the fight and had lost all
his younger officers, commissioned
officers and 140 privates between May
81 and June Is. and asked for informa-
ton
II am lost in wonder" he remarked
to the CAPTAIN. cat the miraculous way
In which our fellows rise from the dead,
as it were. They recover from wounds
which are officially mortal Now, I
want you to tell me, are these eXcep-
tional cases that l have been studying,
or have YOU anything like them?" THE
'Japs' fire accurately" was the answer:
"theY often hit our men in the head,
but when the bullets pass clean
through. MANY of the men get Well"
Curious Well. and how do they fare
when the bullet strikes them in the alb
domen? You know a hurt in the perl
toneum almost infalliblv brings on peri
tonitis and death. And yet we are
transporting men who were wounded in
that very region and are. now hale and
hearty"