f the prominent margins.

The larger fragments of such shells were responsible for the most
serious mutilating injuries, while small fragments sometimes caused
comparatively simple perforating wounds. I remember a fragment of the
fused character not larger than a small nut which had perforated the
front of the thigh of a Boer, and lodged near the inner surface of the
femur. Removal of the fragment was followed by a free gush of
haemorrhage. When the wound was opened up an opening was found in the
external circumflex artery, haemorrhage from which had been controlled by
the impaction of the piece of shell. As an example of the cutting power
of sharp fragments of shell I might instance the case of another Boer in
whom light passing contact had been made by the missile. A gaping
incised wound extended from above the angle of the scapula down to the
outer surface of the buttock. The wound involved the latissimus dorsi,
and the external and internal oblique muscles of the abdomen. The
separate muscular layers were sharply defined in the lateral parts of
the floor of the wound, and remained so for some time during the gradual
contraction of the large granulating surface produced. The degree of
contusion was in fact slight, while the incised character was strongly
marked.

In some cases the fragments merely struck the soldiers on the flat
without producing any wound. In one such case a blow upon the
epigastrium was, according to the patient, followed by the vomiting of a
considerable amount of blood. A fluid diet was ordered, and no further
ill effects were noted. The following case illustrates an oblique blow
of a perforating character, which was nevertheless recovered from.

[Illustration: FIG. 91.--Various portions of Brass Percussion and Time
Fuses]

(210) _Shell-wound of abdomen. Injury to liver._--Wounded at
Paardeberg by a fragment of shell. Aperture of entry, a ragged
opening in the median line. The fragment of shell was retained
over the ninth costal cartilage in the nipple line. The wound
bled freely, but the man was taken into camp, and then four
miles on to the hospital, where he was anaesthetised and the
fragment extracted. The wound of entry was at the same time
enlarged, cleansed, and partly sutured. The patient vomited
once after the anaesthetic, and the bowels remained confined for
three or four days after the injury. The extraction wound
healed readi