The Hartford republican. (Hartford, Ky.) 18??-1926, 1914-12-11
Dangerous Wounds Made by Schrap.
mel Shells.

hDahSVtOuS nlouV ny
mel Shells.
Berlin, Nov. 16.-The German sur
geons have begun to talk about their
experience in healing the wounded
in this war. Prof. Payr. of Leipsic
University, who is acting as Surgeon
General to the Saxon army, recently
delivered an address at one of the
Impoverished hospitals on the line
of the German communications, in
which he gave much interesting in
formation on the subject.
Payr pointed out that the balls
used in schrapnel shells produce
much more dangerous wounds than
rifle bullets. They carry into the
wound fragments of clothing, cores
ponding quantity of dangerous germs
and they are much more likely to
be lodged in the body. There was
suppuration in 20 to rs per cent. of
cases. The same danger is still more
serious with wounds from fragments
of shells. 1t was found too, that
this war has been especially marked
by the great number of such wounds.
Not only do shell fragments carry
gVPm into the body with bits of cloth
ing, but the dangerous gases from
the shrapnel explosion often adhere
to the fragments and balls in suf-
ficient quantities to poison the
wound Lock jaw is often procured
by wounds of this character, but by
vaccinating patients with tetanus
serum by the German surgeons have
materially reduced the ratio of deaths
in such cases since the first weeks
of the war. ,....
Especially dangerous are the
wounds caused by fragments of
bombs thrown by aviators. Even very
small fragments often produce much
more dangerous wounds than the
much larger pieces of ordinary shells.
These small fragments penetrate very
deep in the body. cutting through
all blood vessels, and thick masses
of muscle are cut through as with
a sharp knife. Aeroplane bombs also
frequently cause bad burns.
So far as simple flesh wounds
from smaall-caliber rifles are con-
cerned, Payr found that these heal
very rapidly. In most cases the
wounded were able to peturn to the
ranks within a week or two. Even
in cases of chest wounds, where the
ribs are not touched, healing is
usually very rapid, even though the
lungs be penetrated.
A new kind of wound has been
caused by the shary steel arrows
thrown at great heights by French
about the thickness of an ordinary
lead pencil, and when thrown at a
height of about 500 feet strike their
victim at the velocity OF built just
leaving the muzzle of a rifle. Payr
says they produce very dangerous
wounds.
DR.. Payr declares that the small
bullet badly skaters the hollow
bones of arm and leg when striking
them at short distance. but that at
greater distances they tend more to
bore a shooth hole. with little or
no fracturing. Bones near the joints
are shot through smoothly and the
heal with no difficulty. An
other effect of the present type of
bullet is to- cut though the blood
vessels, whereas they would often
be pushed aside by the older
lead bullet and escape disruption.
This is regarded by Payr as one
dangerous result of the small-caliber
bullet, especially where veins and
arteries are cut through deep in the
flesh.
Wounds in the abdomen, says Payr.
are most likely to heal without
an operation than with one; and this,
he says. was first proved in the Boer
War. The difficulty in the way of an
operation is that II is almost impos-
sible to take the necessary antisep-
tic precautions. U