Military versus Civil Surgery, Character and…

Some, however, feel as if a red-hot wire were passed through the part. The fracturing or splintering of a bone is always more painful than a wound, and if a joint or larger cavity be penetrated, the is still more acute, and the shock still greater in most cases proportioned to the vitality of the part injured. It is a very remarkable, though universally known fact, that when the mind is greatly engrossed by external objects excited " 'mid the current of the heady fight," severe wounds may be received without any consciousness on the part of the receiver. Whether the sensation may be so very slight as to be immediately obliterated by the tide of strong passions rushing through the mind of the combatant, or whether a reflex act of the mind be necessary for receiving a sensation in common words, for perceiving the state of its companion, the body I shall not attempt to discuss. But all military surgeons will confirm the statement of Hennen, when he says that " some men will have a limb carried off, or shattered to pieces by a cannon-ball, without exhibiting the slightest signs of mental or corporeal agitation nay, without being conscious of it." I myself have known an officer who had both legs carried away, and who said that it was only when he attempted to rise, he became aware of the injury he had received; and very many who had suffered slighter wounds, have said that the trickling of blood along the skin was what first called their attention to their This is a very curious and interesting subject to the physiologist, to nil who study the marvellous interdependence of mind and body. AVlmt 01 wnrxns ANh Tiir.ii: Tin' collapse" frequently follow tluii -f a mortal wound in the trunk, are, in many ca appalling. JUit although the presence,,r of this severe constitutional "Stic indication of the gravity of the injury, it is not entirely to be depended on, lor the terror and amount of shock" frequently depend as much on the "nerve" and frame of the surt'erer, as on;he of wound. The different effects produe.-d on ditferent persons by wounds in every respect alike, are ohvioiis to every one who h war, and call for the exercise of a most discriminating judgment on the part of the surgeon. Then, the period of " collapse." which will, to some degree, occur in of a severe wound, varies greatly, which must determine whether immediate amputation lie necessary, or whether the exact province of each is, we are not in y th.-cnu-tant c.'iitciniilatiuii it.-jn-.l t,y th,iniixl l<oking illegible in the scan of the first