e. I remember one case shown to
me in the Irish Hospital in Bloemfontein by Sir W. Thomson, in which at
the end of the third day small symmetrical vertical slits in each ala
already healed were scarcely visible. This case very strongly impressed
one with the doctrine of chances, since on the same morning I was asked
to see a patient in whom a similar transverse shot had crossed both
orbits, destroying both globes and injuring the brain.

A retained bullet in the upper portion of the nasal cavity has already
been referred to (fig. 60). This accident was naturally a rare one; in
that instance the bullet had only retained sufficient force to insert
itself neatly between the bones.

Wounds crossing the nasal fossae were comparatively common. The
interference with the sense of smell often resulting is discussed in
Chapter IX.

_Wounds of the malar bone_ were not infrequent. The small amount of
splintering was somewhat remarkable considering the density of structure
of the bone. In this particular the behaviour of the malar corresponded
with what was observed in the flat bones in general. A case quoted in
Chapter III. p. 87, illustrates the capacity of the hard edge of the
bone to check the course of a bullet, and cause considerable deformity
and fissuring of the mantle.

_Wounds of the jaws. Upper jaw._--A large number of tracks crossing the
antrum transversely, obliquely, or vertically were observed. In the
first case the nasal cavity, in the others the orbital or buccal cavity,
were generally concurrently involved. It was somewhat striking that I
never observed any trouble, immediate or remote, from these perforations
of the antrum. If haemorrhage into the cavity occurred, it gave rise to
no ultimate trouble. I never saw an instance of secondary suppuration
even in cases where the bullet entered or escaped through the alveolar
process with considerable local comminution. The branches of the second
division of the fifth nerve were sometimes implicated. In one instance a
bullet traversed and cut away a longitudinal groove in the bones,
extending from the posterior margin of the hard palate, and terminating
by a wide notch in the alveolar process.

A good example of a troublesome transverse wound of the bones of the
face is afforded by the following instance:--

(81) _Entry_ (Mauser), through the left malar eminence, 1 inch
below and external to the external canthus; _exit_, a slightly
curved tranverse s