The first theory why a bullet wound had such dire consequences (even if it did not kill immediately) was the idea of poisoning tissues with lead and gunpowder. This is how the severe bacterial infection of the wound canal was explained, which was usually treated with hot iron and boiling oil. The suffering of the wounded man from this "therapy" intensified many times, up to the lethal pain shock. However, by 1514, scientists were able to identify five properties of a gunshot wound: burn (adustio), bruise (contusion), precipitation (attrition), fracture (fractura) and poisoning (venenum). The barbaric method of pulling out a bullet and pouring boiling oil was only broken by the middle of the 16th century in France.
Surgeon Paré Amboise
Surgeon Paré Ambroise in 1545, during another battle, faced an acute shortage of boiling oil for the wounded - some of the soldiers had to simply be bandaged. Not hoping for their unfortunate recovery, Paré checked the bandages after a while and was amazed. The wounds were in much better condition compared to those that had enough "salvage" oil. The Frenchman also denied the idea that the bullet gets hot during the flight and additionally burns human tissue. Ambroise conducted, probably, the first ever experiment in wound ballistics, shelling bags of wool, tow, and even gunpowder. Nothing flared or exploded, so the burn theory was rejected.
The history of mankind provides a very extensive material for doctors and scientists to study the bullet effect on the flesh - the Thirty Years 'War of 1618-1648, the Seven Years' War of 1756-1763, Napoleon's military campaigns of 1796-1814 became the largest in three centuries. and other minor carnage.
One of the first full-scale tests of the action of a bullet on an object, similar to human flesh, was carried out by the Frenchman Guillaume Dupuytren in 1836. The military surgeon fired at corpses, boards, lead plates, felt, and found out that the fire channel has a funnel-shaped shape, with its wide base facing the exit hole. The conclusion of his work was the thesis that the size of the outlets will always be larger than the inlets. Later (in 1848) this idea was challenged by the Russian surgeon Nikolai Pirogov, who, on the basis of his extensive experience and observations of the wounds of soldiers during the siege of the aul of Salta, indicated that the "Dupuytren effect" is possible only when a bullet hits the bone.
"N. I. Pirogov examines the patient D. I. Mendeleev" I. Tikhiy
A piece of lead deforms in the process and tears nearby tissues. Pirogov proved that when a bullet passes only through soft tissues, the exit hole is always smaller and already entering. All these results of observations and experiments were valid for the middle of the 19th century - smooth-bore muzzle-loading rifles with a round low-speed bullet (200-300 m / s) ruled on the battlefields.
A small revolution was made in 1849 by Minier's bullets of a conical shape and a noticeable higher flight speed. The hit of such a bullet in a person caused very serious damage, very reminiscent of the effect of an explosion. Here is what the famous Pirogov wrote in 1854:
Minier bullet and cross-section of the Minier choke
Mignet's bullets played their sad role for Russia in the Crimean War. But evolution did not stand still here either - the Dreise and Chasspo needle rifles already had a unitary cartridge with a cylindrical-conical bullet of a small caliber with a very high speed for that time - 430 m / s. It was with these bullets that the deformation of the bullet in the tissues, bringing additional suffering, began.
Chasspo paper cartridges
Needle rifle cartridges. Left Dreise, in the center of Chasspo
Pirogov wrote in 1871: Scientists put forward a lot of hypotheses to explain the barbarous bursting effect of new bullets:
- mushroom deformation and bullet melting;
- the idea of bullet rotation and the formation of a boundary layer;
- hydraulic theory;
- shock and hydrodynamic theory;
- hypothesis of air concussion and head ballistic wave.
Scientists tried to prove the first hypothesis with the following provisions. The bullet, when it hits the flesh, deforms and expands in the head part, pushing the boundaries of the wound channel. In addition, the researchers proposed an interesting idea, according to which a lead bullet, when fired from close distances, melts and particles of liquid lead, due to the rotation of the bullet, are sprayed in lateral directions. This is how a terrible funnel-shaped channel appears in the human body, expanding towards the outlet. The next thought was the statement about the hydraulic pressure that occurs when a bullet hits the head, chest or abdominal cavity. The researchers were led to this idea by shooting at empty and filled with water cans. The effects, as you know, are completely different - a bullet passes through an empty tin can, leaving only neat holes, while a bullet simply tears apart a container filled with water. These deep misconceptions were dispelled by the Nobel Prize laureate Swiss surgeon Theodor Kocher, who became, in fact, one of the founders of medical wound ballistics.
Emil Theodor Kocher
Kocher, after many experiments and calculations in the 80s of the XIX century, proved that the melting of a bullet by 95% does not matter for the affected tissue, since it is negligible. At the same time, the surgeon, after firing gelatin and soap, confirmed the mushroom-like deformation of the bullet in the tissues, but this was also not so significant and did not explain the "explosive effect" of the wound. Kocher, in a rigorous scientific experiment, showed a negligible effect of the rotation of the bullet on the nature of the wound. The rifle bullet rotates slowly - only 4 turns per 1 meter of travel. That is, there is not much difference from which weapon to get a bullet - rifled or smooth-bore. The mystery of the interaction of a bullet and human flesh remained covered in darkness.
There is still an opinion (formulated at the end of the 19th century) about the effect on the wound of the boundary layer located behind the flying bullet and forming a turbulent flow. When penetrating into the flesh, such a bullet, with its "tail" part, carries along the tissues, severely crippling the organs. But this theory did not explain in any way the damage to organs and tissues located at some distance from the bullet head. The next was the theory of hydrostatic pressure, which very simply explains the behavior of a bullet in tissues - it is a small hydraulic press that creates an explosive pressure on impact, propagating in all directions with equal force. Here you can just remember the school thesis that a person has 70% water. It would seem that the effect of a bullet on the flesh is explained quite simply and intelligibly. However, all the medical records of European scientists were confused by Russian surgeons led by Nikolai Pirogov.
Nikolay Ivanovich Pirogov
This is what the Russian military doctor had to say at that time: This is how the shock theory of the action of firearms was born, created in Russia. The greatest importance in it was given to the speed of the bullet, on which both the impact force and penetration were in direct proportion. The surgeon Tile Vladimir Avgustovich was most closely involved in this topic, who conducted very "visual" experiments with unfixed corpses. The skulls were pre-trepanned, that is, holes were “cut out” in them, and then shots were fired in the areas located near the hole. If we follow the theory of water hammer, then, as a result, the medulla would partially simply fly out through a previously prepared hole, but this was not observed. As a result, they came to the conclusion that the kinetic energy of a bullet is the main impact factor of influence on living flesh. Thiele wrote in this regard: Just at this time, at the beginning of the 20th century, comparative studies of the damaging effect of a 10.67 mm lead bullet to the Berdan rifle with an initial velocity of 431 m / s and a 7.62 mm shell bullet mod. 1908 for the Mosin rifle (ammunition speed 640 m / s).
Cartridges and bullets for the Berdan rifle
Cartridges and bullets for the Mosin rifle
Both in Russia and in Europe, work was underway to predict the nature of gunshot wounds from shell bullets in future wars, as well as to develop methods of therapy. A lead bullet in a hard shell seemed much more "humane" than the classic shellless one, since it rarely deformed in tissues and did not cause a pronounced "explosive effect". But there were also skeptics from surgeons, rightly asserting that "the humane is not a bullet, but the hand of a military field surgeon" (Nicht die Geschosse sind human; human ist die Bechandlung des Feldarztes). Comparative studies like this made the British ponder the effectiveness of their 7.7mm Lee Enfield shell bullets against mountain fanatics in northwestern India on the Afghan border. As a result, they came up with the idea of leaving the bullet head open from the shell, as well as making cruciform cuts on the shell and recesses. This is how the famous and barbaric "Dum-Dum" appeared. The International Hague Conference of 1899 eventually banned "bullets that easily unfold or flatten in the human body, of which the hard shell does not completely cover the core or has notches."
There were also curious theories in the history of wound ballistics. So, the mentioned theory of the head ballistic wave explained the damage to tissues by the influence of a layer of compacted air, which is formed in front of a flying bullet. It is this air that tears the flesh in front of the bullet, widening the passage for it. And again everything was refuted by Russian doctors.
"Surgeon E. V. Pavlov in the operating room" I. Repin
Evgeny Vasilievich Pavlov
E. V. Pavlov performed an elegant experiment at the Military Medical Academy. The author applied a thin layer of soot to cardboard sheets with a soft brush, and placed the sheets themselves on a horizontal surface. This was followed by a shot from 18 steps, and the bullet had to pass directly over the cardboard. The results of the experiment showed that blowing off the soot (no more than 2 cm in diameter) was possible only if the bullet passed 1 cm above the cardboard. If the bullet rose 6 cm higher, then the air did not affect the soot at all. In general, Pavlov proved that only with a point-blank shot the air masses in front of the bullet can somehow affect the flesh. And even here, powder gases will have a greater effect.
Such is the triumph of Russian military medicine.
