s such
as are above described to run an aseptic course was very marked, and,
given satisfactory conditions, deep suppuration and cellulitis were
distinctly rare. It may also be confidently affirmed that when
suppuration did occur, with apertures of entry and exit of the normal
small type, this was always the result of infection from the skin, or
infection subsequent to the actual infliction of the wound. The
infrequency of suppuration depended on the aseptic nature of the injury,
the smallness of the openings, the small tendency of the track to weep
and furnish serous discharge in any abundance, the comparative rarity of
the inclusion of fragments of clothing or other foreign bodies, and
possibly in some degree on the purity and dryness of the atmosphere,
which favoured a firm dry clotting of the blood in the apertures of
entry and exit, and consequent safe 'sealing of the wound.'

As to the aseptic nature of the injury, it will be well to first
consider the question of the sterility of the bullet. Putting laboratory
experiments on one side, the large experience of this campaign seems to
prove to absolute demonstration that, bearing in mind the very large
proportion of instances of primary union in simple tracks, the surgeon
has nothing to fear on the part of the bullet itself. This is the more
striking when we remember that these bullets shortly before their
employment were carried in a dirty bandolier, and freely handled by men
whose opportunities of rendering either their hands or implements
aseptic were as bad as it is possible to conceive.

Several explanations are to hand, but none of them conclusive. Two must,
however, be shortly considered. First, the surface of the bullet, except
its tip and base, is practically renewed by passage through the barrel.
Secondly, there is the question of the heat to which it is subjected. As
far as cauterisation of the tissues is concerned, this question has been
practically settled in the negative, since actual determinations of the
heat immediately after the moment of impact have been made, and again it
has been shown that butter is not melted, and that neither gunpowder nor
dynamite is exploded, by firing bullets through small quantities of
those materials. Again, the absence of any sign of scorching of the
clothes of the wounded is strong evidence against the possibility of any
considerable heat being applied to the tissues of the body; while
another observation, although of