Report on gun-shot and sabre wounds of invalids sent to Fort Pitt during the years 1860-61 / by Thomas Longmore.

  • Longmore, Sir Thomas, 1816-1895.
Date:
[1863]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report on gun-shot and sabre wounds of invalids sent to Fort Pitt during the years 1860-61 / by Thomas Longmore. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    .•sensation and mobility. Any attempt to flex the fingers caused great pain in the coui'se of the median nerve. He was discharged to modified service on the 3rd of May, 1859. He was, however, found unequal to this ainount ot tlutv, and was finaUy discharged on the 14th of October 1860, the fore-avm being generally much wasted, and the middle, ring, and little fingers stiU auffisthetic, and extended. The forefinger had, in a great degree, recovered its normal power of motion, so that by its means, together with the thumb, tie had a grasping power of some useful extent. Class 4.—Wounds of the Chest. Altogether there were seven gunshot wounds of the chest, three being re- admissions from among men who had been sent to modified duty. All the seven were wounds by musket balls. Of the seven wounds, five were circumthoracie and non-penetrating one was penetrating, with the ball supposed to be lodged ; and one perforating. Five were from the Indian Mutiny, two from Beyt. Of the cases, five were invalided from the service, two were sent back to duty. Non-penetrating.—The following are brief abstracts of the cases of non- penetrating wounds :— 1st Case.—Private Michael O'Donnell, 78th Regiment, received a bullet wound, on the left side of the chest, in July 1857, at Cawnpore. _ The ball entered two inches above the inferior margin of the left pectoralis major muscle, and made exit a little external to the spinous process of the 6th dorsal vertebra, on tiie riglit side of chest. No professional history of the case was forwarded, beyond tiie statement, that he had been wounded through the chest. There appears to have been copious haemoptysis at the time of the injury, and the man states that htemoptysis continued at intervals for some time after ; but as the ball in its passage injured the axillary plexus, which was evidenced by severe pain along the arm when he was wounded, and ansesthesia of the extremity remaining persistent for a considerable period afterwards, there can be but little doubt that this was a case of a ball making a circuit beneath the integuments. No ril) had been injured, and the movements of the bony parietes of the chest remained unimpaired. The frequency with which non-penetrating gun-shot wounds of the chest are accompanied with haemoptysis, is well known. This patient was not invalided from India until the j'ear 1859. He then joined tlie depot of his regiment at Aberdeen, and was finally sent to Fort Pitt as an invalid, on account of chronic bronchitis and pulmonary emphysema. It was doubtful whether these symptoms were consequent upon or connected with the gun shot wound. He was discharged from the service chiefly on account of the pul- monary emphysema. 2nd Case.—CoiTioral Taylor Reid, 28th Regiment, of 17 years' service, was wounded by a nuisket ball at the assault of Beyt, on the 6th of October, 1869. The ball entered in front of the upper part of the sternum, apparently traversed round the left side of the chest, and made its exit posteriorly just above the fold of the axilla. On admission at Fort Pitt, where he came as an invalid from Bombay, he complained of pain around the upper part of the chest, in both clavicular and scapular regions ; but, after full examination, no foundation could be detected for these complaints, and he was discharged to duty. No liistory of the injury was received from the regiment. Srd Case.—Tliis case was of interest, as the history sent home with the patient stated that the wound had been regarded as an undoubted perforating wound of the chest; while its progress, and the state ol the chest on the soldier's an-ival at Fort Pitt, left no doubt in the minds of any of the surgeons who examined the man, that the ball had only traversed that region external to the pleural cavity, altlmugh at the same time it had probably inflicted a severe injury to its contents. 'Die patient was discharged from Fort Pitt to his duty, at which he still remains. The case is briefly as follows :—Private Jolin O'llnndlon, 2Rth Regiment, was wounded on tiie' (>th of October, 1859, in tlio assault on the fortress of Beyt, hy a matclilook liall. The projectile entered between tlie third and fourth ribs on the left side, about an incli external to the mammary line, and