Observations on wounds, and their complications by erysipelas, gangrene and tetanus : and on the principal diseases and injuries of the head, ear and eye / by the Baron D.J. Larrey ; tr. from the French by E.F. Rivinus.

  • Larrey, D. J. (Dominique Jean), baron, 1766-1842.
Date:
1832
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on wounds, and their complications by erysipelas, gangrene and tetanus : and on the principal diseases and injuries of the head, ear and eye / by the Baron D.J. Larrey ; tr. from the French by E.F. Rivinus. 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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    subject sufficiently explained, so that I shall forbear dwelling \3p0n it / The friction which the projectiles experience within the ube of the weapon which has thrown them, as well as that to jvhich they are liable from the action of the air or other bodies ■jvhich they meet, before coming in contact with our parts, equally destroys the various substances which could have been applied to their exterior, and which might have carried with them any poisonous principles. Supposing even that these could have been combined with the metals at the moment of the process of casting, all that is found liberated is after- ^ wards volatilized, and the remainder would become identified with the component molecules of these metals in such a man- ner as to lose its power of acting upon our organs. There is consequently no cause for apprehension that the various pro- jectiles which may be employed should be capable of causing the eflfects of poison. We shall now proceed to the description of the general and local phenomena which these foreign bodies produce upon the parts struck by them; after which our attention shall be direct- ed to the numerous and manifold symptoms which may be the result of the solutions of continuity which they induce. It is, generally speaking, natural to believe that the irrita- tion and the degree of stupor which take place after a gun-shot wound, should be in a ratio with the force of the body inflict- ing the wound, and that, consequently, this stupor should be in proportion to the amount of activity with which the projectile body may have been endowed by the peculiar structure of the weapon, and the form of the body which may have been thrown from it. It is not less reasonable to believe that the greater the resistance is which the injured parts may have op- posed to the impelling force of this body, the more serious wilt be the symptoms. We have, therefore, to consider these symptoms first in relation to the local eflfects produced by pro- jectiles, as well as to those which they induce upon the sur- rounding parts; and secondly, in relation to the greater or less degree of injury which they frequently inflict upon the integrity of vital organs.