A Bullet in the Brain

Horowhenua Chronicle, 4 November 1915, Page 2

A Bullet in the Brain

Engineering says that one ot the most remarkable and humane features ol modern warfare is tliat bullet wounds of tho, brain arc no longer necessarily fatal, as they almost invariably wero b the day of the Martini and "Brown Bess." In such wounds brain matter may protrude from entrance and exit apertures, a phenomenon apparently due not .so much to the direct action of the bullet as to subsequent pressure set up hv pathological changes. A soldier walked 4 miles after the battle of Magesfontein wifli brain .substance emerging from each side of his head, yet this man made a very good recovery. Concussion of the brain may bo inducwithout the bullet having entered the brain or even the Iviill; there are two interesting in point, olio Fleet Surgeon C. Mai.sh Beadnell, hail from the field of war. The writer, fired a 0.303 bullet at a water-buck from a distance of about 50 yards. The buck fell in his tracks without a struggle, apparently dead. The sports-' man put his rifle on the ground ami sauntered up to the creature to examine it. when it suddenly .staggered to its feet and, before he could regain his weapon, disappeared into the bush. Blood lay on the ground where the animal's head had been, awl. although the wound was not actually seen, there is no doubt that it was a head shot, for the sportsman bad been able to rest his rffle on a stump and take careful ' aim. so there was little doubt that tlio bullet, 'while failing to enter tlie skull, .had nevertheless grazed it and thereby transmitted enough shock to prodiice temporary insensibility. Another curious instance, in this ease in a human being and fatal, oceured in the Filipino war. The bullet, a 'arge-boro Springfield, entered the skull Behind the light ear, and, coming into confnct . with the tough membranes (Dura mater protecting the brain, turned aside and passed once more trough the skull-wall, but thte time from within outwards, and thence in into the open air. All this took place in so.small an area of the head that the apertures of entrance and exit were 'within inch of one another. •