They ted under a pressure, and were the contributiou< of a country where the drag-net of the conscription is nt u-ed t inclose the good as well as the bad, and where a soldier's lite is not in any honour or favour with the generality of the ot' them wenraw ill-conditioned, below the standard age, undeveloped in body, unconfirmed in constitution, and hence without stamina or powers of endurance. Often selected on account of their precocious growth, at once launched into the turmoil, unwonted labour, and hardship of a siege, in which the strength of full-grown men soon failed, they were very quickly "used up." Cholera or: speedily seized them, overtaxed as they were in work, and unaccustomed to either the food or the exposure which fell to them.
The tilled with such unpromising patients, whose wi/ened" look mark'-d by the most C; If these unfortunate I were severely wounded they almost invariably died, as their weakly ntutions and overstrained powers could not withbhe opl ry." To them Hunter's;-plied with peeui. lhat " their condition of health did.n- disease." If th'-y survived the:< of their injury, their convalescence was pain'1, and the least imprudence produced a relaps.-. Their ailments were seldom acute their lifer was unequal to its production their IMT, systems were shattered, and that undefined but i ae, known as thu mat des tnnohi SOOn set up. in had soon to be abano AVAIL doned, and a more rational treatment, founded on special symptoms and tlie observed effects of remedies,.substituted for the conventional mediration.
Again, several of the regiments which suffered most in many of the assaults, and which consequently contributed the greater number of the operative cases, were, either wholly or in part, composed of men who had just returned from prolonged service in India. Men so circumstanced were but ill calculated to undergo the rigours of a Crimean winter, or the hard work of the trenches, or yet the great trial of a capital operation. There was yet another element which demands attention, when estimating the surgical records of the war. I refer to the use of the new rifle, with its conical ball. The rifle used by the Russians was little inferior in range or force to our Minie, while its conical, deepcupped ball was much heavier.
The great variety in form and weight which the balls used by the belligerents presented, will be seen by reference to the table in the (E), where the particular description and weight of each are given. The greater precision in aim, the immensely increased range, the peculiar shape, great force, and unwonted motion imparted by the new rifles to their conical balls, have introduced into the prognosis of gun-shot wounds an element of the utmost importance. I am not prepared to say whether the great destruction of the soft and hard tissues which these balls occasion, results from their wedgelike shape, immense force and velocity, or the revolving motion, or from a combination of all these causes combined; but of one thing I am convinced, that their use has changed the bearing of many points which fall to be considered by the surgeon in the I15W nur.-.Mi.Ms. field.
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With us, every refinement in the art of destruction was liberally practised, so that "1'art de tuer les hommes avec methode, et gloire," was, unhappily, never carried nearer perfection, though we may comfort ourselves with the reflection of Percy, that this very perfection, " nous a donne* la meme tache et la m6me recompense dans 1'art de les conserver." " Les circonstances," says Briot, "qui contribuent le plus a la destruction des hommes sont aussi celles qui font decouvrir et developpent plus de moyens propres a leur conservation." Finally, if in war the surgeon sees much which is terrible, much which taxes his feelings of humanity, and his regret at the feebleness of his art, he has also the comforting conviction that nowhere is his beneficent mission so felt, nowhere is the saving power of his profession so fully exercised; so true is it, that "Chirurgery triumphs in armies and in sieges.
'Tis there that its empire is owned, 'tis there that its effects, and not words, express its Dionis, quoted by Sir George Ballingall. ← Campaign in Bulgaria, Flank March, and Epidemics in… Peculiarities of Gun-shot Wounds, Shock, Pain, and… Chapter V Peculiarities of Gun-shot Wounds, Shock, Pain, and General Treatment Peculiarities of Gun-shot Wounds, Shock, Pain, and General Treatment illegible in the scan of the first