A GUN-SHOT WOUND TREATED IN THE NOAKHALLY DISPENSARY.

By Assistant-Surgeon ANNUND CHANDER MOOKERJEE.

A Mahomedan boy, pretty healthy looking, aged about 13 years, was admitted into the Dis- pensary on the 7th January, with a bullet wound in the right thigh. The boy was said to have been working in a field, overgrown with scattered patches of jungle, and there he receiv- ed the shot from the gun of a man who had been out shooting in the place. On examination, a roundish wound, such as

would be caused by a bullet, was found at the

upper part and outer side of the right thigh close to the neck of the bone. When the wound was explored with the finger, a bullet was felt

lodging deeply in the substance of the femur. The ball was firmly impacted; it could not be extracted without the use of a trephine. The wound having been opened up at its lower part, a portion of the elevated edge of the bone was trephined, and with the help of an elevator, the bullet was dislodged from the osseous cavity. The bullet was a round one. The lips of the wound were brought into apposition by meaus of sutures and adhesive plaster and dressed with

carbolic oil, the limb being placed in M'Intyre's splint.

"When I visited the patient next morning, I found the injured thigh curved outwards, and the leg shortened. I suspected fracture of the

thigh ; my suspicion was confirmed on examin- ing the limb. The fracture was the result of

muscular action, which broke the thin shell of osseous tissue, which preserved the continuity of the bone and formed the wall of the cavity, from which the bullet was extracted. There was

nothing particular in the after-treatment of the case ; the patient made a good recovery and walked out of the Hospital on 15th March, with the limb shortened about ? inch. The frequency of bullet wounds in civil

practice, is my only apology for sending this case to print.