S'il recussit, il aura beaucoup fait en faveur du S'il devant 1'impossibilite' absolue ou devant la crainte de produire les lesions additionelles trop graves il aura encore satisfait aux principes de 1'art; et quels que soient les resultats de la blessure il n'aura pas a se reprocher de les avoir laisse devenir funestes par son K-BH0I WO0HD8 AND TIIKIII TKKATMKXT. If we examine into the opinions of surgeons on this point, we find that nearly all those who look upon tinextraction of the ball as a matter of secondary military surgeons place great.ht upon its accomplishment. The true way of putting the question is, not whether halls may remain in the body without causing annoyance, but whether they do so in so large a number of cases as to warrant nuninterference.
We must always remember that "science is not made up <>f exceptions," but is established by a collection of positive t'aets. Those who have studied in the field, know lull well how enormous is the irritability caused by the presence in a wound all or other foreign body how restless and irritable the patient is till it is removed how prolonged the period of treatment is in the cases in which it is left; and how frequently t' ka are so distressing as to deman-'. or condemn the unfortunate sufferer to a life of discomfort. As it is the surgt duty to treat his patients with reference to their future ease, as well as to their present cure, so he should not ring about a healing of the wound which be only temporary and fallacious, to the sacrifice of the efficiency of a limb and the future health of tinbody. have not many opportunities of information on tinpoint as cond with the subsequent history of men with halls remaining nnextracted, but such information is sup' fp>m the Hotel des Invalides of France, by M. to that establishuhile cas examined by him in five years, only twelve men presented themselves who suffered no inconvenience from unextracted balls, and the wounds of 200 continued to open and close continually till the foreign body had been removed.
This epitome is of much value in estimating the question I am considering. In leaving the ball unextracted, we never know what evils may follow. The keeping open of the wound exposes the patients in the first place to all the dangers of a life in hospital, and the very elimination of the foreign body by suppuration, if it take place at all, necessitates a vast amount of annoyance. If it be a piece of shell or such like which is present, then its size will prevent its unaided extrusion, and the blocking up of the track which it is so apt to occasion, may cause burrowing abscesses of a most destructive character. Before a ball becomes encysted, it may set up grave inflammation, which will mat together and embarrass parts; press upon bone, and perhaps cause exfoliation; ulcerate blood-vessels, and so irritate nerves as to occasion affections as severe and fatal in their results as tetanus.