A dissertation on gun-shot wounds / by Charles Bell.

  • Bell, Charles, Sir, 1774-1842.
Date:
1814
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A dissertation on gun-shot wounds / by Charles Bell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    had under my care, have proved to me that the books we possess upon the subject of field-practice do not even hint at the nature of the difficulties the surgeon has to encounter there. In the nature and in the progress of gun-shot wounds, there is much to be observed which never is to be seen in domestic practice. Not only is the surgeon placed in a very peculiar and trying situation, where his knowledge must be ready, and his judgment clear, and his practice decisive, but his opinion on the cases of those wounded in battle is to be formed from circumstances widely different from those wliich guide the domestic surgeon in his practice. As my object in the few observations I have to make is not to fall into the old question of the peculiarity of the wound by fire-arms, but rather to place before my reader the difficulties of the ser- vice, I shall first enumerate the principal varieties of wounds brought into the cockpit of a man-of-war during a sea-fight, with something of the detail of the preparations. The surgeon of a ship, before he quits the port, ought to provide himself with a small chest of band- ages and dressings j callico-rollers, tow, lint, linen, and plaster, also sponges and compresses, and pre- ^ pared ligatures. There ought also to be deposited in this chest a number of common tourniquets be- sides those kept in the other cases of instruments. This chest should be kept reserved for the day of action, and it ought to be in such order that when opened during an engagement, all that it contains should at once be under the eye; so that any thing may