Cover of Surgical Experiences in South Africa, 1899-1900 Being Mainly a Clinical Study of the Nature and Effects of Injuries Produced by Bullets of Small Calibre — Inside the Classic

Surgical Experiences in South Africa, 1899-1900 Being Mainly a Clinical Study of the Nature and Effects of Injuries Produced by Bullets of Small Calibre — Inside the Classic

(0 User reviews) 86

In Category - Medicine

Authors: Makins, George Henry, 1853- Digital Source: Project Gutenberg Gutenberg Release Year: 2007 First Publication Year: Not confirmed

Key Word: South African War, 1899-1902; Surgery, Military; Gunshot wounds Target Reader: Readers of public-domain and historical texts

Book Edition: Project Gutenberg digital edition Book Language: en

Edition facts

Words 166,608

Reading time 725 min

Text sections 24

The catalog record for Surgical Experiences in South Africa, 1899-1900 Being Mainly a Clinical Study of the Nature and Effects of Injuries Produced by Bullets of Small Calibre — Inside the Classic provides practical reading context through 166,608 words, 12 hr 5 min estimated reading time, and 24 detected text sections.

The text analysis averages about 22.8 words per sentence, while the detected sections provide another way to judge how the source is divided.

Project Gutenberg metadata also associates the work with “South African War, 1899-1902,” connecting these edition facts with the source record’s subject description.

Source: Project Gutenberg record #21280

Makins analyzes small-caliber bullet wounds from the Boer War, focusing on entry/exit wound morphology, skull fractures, and the influence of bullet velocity on tissue damage, based on his clinical observations as a consulting surgeon.

Editorial Edition Score 4.9/5

★★★★★ ★★★★★

Calculated from edition completeness, EPUB availability, text structure and catalogue metadata. Not a user rating.

How this score is calculated

Description quality20 pts
Title & short description10 pts
Source metadata20 pts
Text length15 pts
Chapters / structure15 pts
EPUB file integrity20 pts

Total of 100 points, scaled to a 2.5-5.0 range. Editions with an empty description or a missing EPUB file are not scored.

Edition quality

File: pg21280

Read the Text

Chapter II. I must express my indebtedness to the work of MM. Nimier and Laval, so frequently quoted.

The only other object of this Preface is to express my thanks to the many who have aided me in the task of amplifying the observations on which the articles are founded, and I think no writer ever received more sympathetic and kindly help in such particulars than the author.

My first thanks, those due to the Members of the Royal Army Medical Corps, I endeavour to express by the dedication of this volume. Any attempt to make individual acknowledgment to either the Members of the Service, or to the Civil Surgeons temporarily attached, would be impossible. I have, however, tried to associate the names of many of those in charge of cases in the recital of histories and treatment throughout.

My thanks are not less due to the Military Heads of Departments at the War Office, who have helped me in the collection of details as to the subsequent course of many of the cases described, and in the acquisition of information regarding the weapons and ammunition treated of. I should particularly express my gratitude to Colonel Robb, of the Adjutant-General's Department, and Colonel Montgomery, of the Ordnance Department.

I am greatly indebted to my former colleague Mr. Cheatle for two of the illustrations of wounds, and for permission to quote some of his other experience, and to Mr. Henry Catling, to whose skill I owe the majority of the skiagrams of the fractures under my observation at Wynberg and elsewhere.

I must also express my thanks to Mr. Danielsson and his artist, Mr. Ford, for the trouble they have taken in converting my rough sketches into the illustrations contained in the volume.

Lastly, my warmest gratitude is due to my friends, Mr. Cuthbert Wallace, who has read some of my chapters, and to Mr. F. C. Abbott, who has read the whole book for the press and suggested many improvements and modifications.

47 CHARLES STREET, BERKELEY SQUARE, W.

Itinerary--Surgical outfit--Personal transport--General health of the troops--Climate--Consideration of the number of men killed and wounded--Transport of the wounded--Vehicles--Trains--Ships--Hospitals 1

MODERN MILITARY RIFLES AND THEIR ACTION

General type--Calibre, length, and weight of bullet--Velocity--Trajectory--Revolution--Varieties of rifle in common use by the Boers--Penetration--Comparison of bullets--Use of wax--Comparative efficiency of different types 40

GENERAL CHARACTERS OF WOUNDS INFLICTED BY BULLETS OF SMALL CALIBRE

Type wounds--Nature of external apertures--Direct course of wound track--Multiple wounds--Small bore and sharp localisation of tracks--Clinical course--Mode of healing--Suppuration--Wounds of irregular type--Ricochet--Mauser bullet--Lee-Metford bullet--Expanding bullets--Altered bullets--Large sporting bullets--Symptoms--Psychical disturbance and shock--Local shock--Pain--Hæmorrhage--Diagnosis--Prognosis--Treatment 55

INJURIES TO THE BLOOD VESSELS

Nature of lesions; contusion, laceration, perforation--Results of injuries--Primary hæmorrhage--Recurrent hæmorrhage--Secondary hæmorrhage--Treatment of hæmorrhage--Traumatic aneurisms--Arterial hæmatoma--True traumatic aneurism--Aneurismal varix and varicose aneurism--Conditions affecting development--Effects of aneurismal varix or varicose aneurism on the general circulation--Prognosis and treatment of aneurismal varix--Prognosis and treatment of varicose aneurism--Gangrene after ligation of arteries 112

INJURIES TO THE BONES OF THE LIMBS

Nature of wounds--Explosive wounds--Types of fracture of shafts of long bones--Stellate, wedge, notch, oblique, transverse, perforating--Fractures by old types of bullet--Lesions of the short and flat bones--Special character of the symptoms in gunshot fracture, and of the course of healing--Prognosis--Treatment--Special fractures--Upper extremity--Pelvis--Lower extremity 154

INJURIES TO THE JOINTS

General character--Vibration synovitis--Wounds of joints--Classification--Course and symptoms--General treatment--Special joints 225

INJURIES TO THE HEAD AND NECK

Anatomical lesions--Scalp wounds--Fracture of the skull without evidence of gross lesion of the brain--Fractures with concurrent brain injury--Classification--General injuries--Effect of ricochet--Vertical or coronal wounds in frontal region--Glancing or oblique wounds of any region--Gutter fractures--Superficial perforating fractures--Fractures of the base--Symptoms of fracture of the skull, with concurrent injury to the brain--Concussion--Compression--Irritation--Frontal injuries--Fronto-parietal and parietal injuries--Occipital injuries--Forms of hemianopsia--Abscess of the brain--General diagnosis--General prognosis--Traumatic epilepsy--General treatment--Wounds of the head not involving the brain--Mastoid process--Orbit--Globe of the eye--Nose--Malar bone--Upper jaw--Mandible--Wounds of the neck--Wounds of the pharynx, larynx, and trachea 241

INJURIES TO THE VERTEBRAL COLUMN AND SPINAL CORD

Fractures in their relation to nerve injury--Transverse processes--Spinous processes--Centra--Signs of fracture of the vertebra--Injuries to the spinal cord--Effects of high velocity--Concussion, slight, severe--Contusion--Hæmorrhage, extra-medullary, hæmatomyelia--Symptoms of injury to the spinal cord--Concussion--Hæmorrhage--Total transverse lesion--Diagnosis of form of lesion--Prognosis--Treatment 314

INJURIES TO THE PERIPHERAL NERVES

Anatomical lesions--Concussion--Contusion--Division or laceration--Secondary implication of the nerve--Symptoms of nerve injury--Traumatic neuritis--Scar implication--Ascending neuritis--Traumatic neurosis--Injuries to special nerves--Cranial nerves--Cervical, brachial, lumbar, and sacral plexuses--Cases of nerve injury--General prognosis and treatment 341

INJURIES TO THE CHEST

Non-penetrating wounds of the chest wall--Penetrating wounds, special characters of entrance and exit apertures--Fracture of the ribs, symptoms, treatment--Wounds of the diaphragm--Wounds of the heart--Wounds of the lung, symptoms--Pneumothorax--Hæmothorax-- Empyema--Diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of hæmothorax--Cases of hæmothorax 374

INJURIES TO THE ABDOMEN

Continue Reading →

Makins opens his clinical study by acknowledging that his observations were initially intended for a series of articles in the British Medical Journal, but expanding experience led him to revise early impressions. He cautions that the cases selected—those he followed for extended periods—tend toward exceptional severity, making statistical inference misleading. This deliberate focus on severe, well-documented injuries shapes the entire work.

Wound Morphology and the Problem of Entry vs. Exit

Makins devotes careful attention to distinguishing entry from exit wounds, a task complicated by the symmetrical structure of the scalp. He notes that in simple through-and-through injuries, the two apertures could be nearly identical, with the only difference being the lack of skin support at the exit. The granular structure of the scalp prevented slit-like exits, producing irregularly rounded openings instead. When bone fragments accompanied the bullet, the exit wound enlarged, but the entry wound—supported by bone—also tended to be larger than those over soft tissue alone. On the forehead, however, pure slit exits often appeared along natural creases. These observations underscore how local anatomy and bullet dynamics interact to produce wound patterns.

Explosive Effects and the Role of Bullet Velocity

In the most severe skull injuries, Makins describes exit wounds with everted margins two or more inches in diameter, from which a mass of brain debris, bone fragments, and particles of dura, skin, and hair protruded as a primary hernia cerebri. He terms these 'explosive' in character. In other cases, the external opening was smaller, but the scalp was swollen and œdematous, crackling with extravasated blood, and palpation gave the impression of 'a bag of bones' over a wide area. These descriptions directly link higher bullet velocity to greater comminution and laceration. Makins also notes that brain pulp could appear in the entry wound, not just the exit—a detail that complicates simple assumptions about wound ballistics.

The Challenge of Detecting Occult Injuries

Makins observes that gutter fractures of the scalp could lie beneath an open furrow or a bridge of intact skin; in the latter case, the fracture was palpable but not visible. Simple puncture wounds were also palpable, yet their small size sometimes made detection harder than expected. He remarks that he never saw a case where the skull escaped injury when a bullet struck the scalp at right angles, though the frequency of Mauser bullets found inside helmets suggested such glancing impacts must have occurred. This tension between observed patterns and inferred possibilities reveals the limits of clinical examination in the field, where subtle injuries could be missed.

Makins’s work is best approached as a series of detailed case analyses rather than a systematic textbook. Readers should note his explicit warning against drawing statistical conclusions from his selection of severe cases. The value lies in the precise clinical descriptions and the author’s willingness to revise initial interpretations as his experience grew.

I kept thinking about Makins’ quiet patience with wounds—how he watched bullets pass through bodies, noting exactly what changed and what didn’t. That same unhurried attention to how structure holds or shifts under pressure came back to me reading Philosophy of Osteopathy — Key Ideas to Explore. Different century, different language, but the same gentle wonder at what the body endures and remembers.