licated, the general
tendency was to spontaneous cessation of the haemorrhage. Consequently,
except these patients were seen on the field, one seldom had to deal
with serious bleeding. None the less, the condition of the patients'
clothes bore testimony to a free rush immediately after the injury, and
pools of blood were occasionally found where patients had lain. In
nearly all cases the rush of the bullet determined the initial flow of
the blood from the exit wound, and this aperture usually furnished any
haemorrhage of importance.

_Diagnosis._--The only diagnostic point which it is necessary to
consider in this chapter is the determination of the nature of the
bullet which has caused the particular injury under observation, and
this is more a matter of interest than importance.

The primary indication lies in the size of the aperture of entry, which
naturally varies with the calibre of the bullet employed, and the
difference, except in the case of large projectiles, is not always
easily determined, unless we can be sure that the impact of the bullet
was at right angles. In the latter case it is possible to distinguish
even between, for instance, a Lee-Metford and a Mauser wound, if the
resistance likely to be offered by the part struck is kept in mind. A
ricochet bullet, on the other hand, may upset all our calculations, if
size alone be taken as an indication; but here the irregularity of the
wound often serves to exclude one of the larger varieties as the cause.
The appearances of the exit wound are less useful in determining the
nature of the bullet employed, as irregularities of outline are so much
more common whatever projectile may have emerged; but examination of
this wound often gives us useful information as to the existence of an
injury to the bones not involving loss of continuity.

[Illustration: FIG. 46.--Two flattened Leaden Cores to illustrate means
of determination of nature of bullet. Note ring at base. The right-hand
bullet is probably a 'man-stopping' revolver bullet; it flattened
against bone]

Other information beyond that furnished by the external wounds may be
gleaned from the presence of fragments of lead in the wound; these, if
unaccompanied by portions of casing, afford some presumptive evidence of
the use of an unsheathen bullet, especially if found on the fractured
surface of the bones; but it must be borne in mind that in the case of
ricochet bullets the leaden core often perforates w