There are physical reasons that induce us to believe that the case is so, and there are several observations which seem to confirm it. Those who have served in time of war, have all been witnesses of some singular instance or other of the effects of the percussion of the air; there are instances of people killed on the field, without being touched by the ball. I was told by officers, men of veracity, that at the battle of Fontanoy, a ball broke the thigh bone of a soldier in the Dutch army, without touching him; another saw a man who was rendered paralytic on one side, by a ball whizing past him. Curious observers know, that nothing so greatly fatigues an army as a high wind, even the centinels are tired, without marching; the reason is, that a high wind occasions a kind of general contusion, which of course produces weariness. I do not know but some of the effects of lightening may be imputed to the same cause. I shall add nothing to what Mr. Bilguer says concerning the effects of a contusion; he is sufficiently explicit on this head; and as I have already treated the subject pretty largely in my book termed _Advice to the People_, I shall only observe, that in the wounds made by musket-ball, the effect of the general concussion is not very considerable, but the danger, in such cases, proceeds from the topical contusion accompanying the wound, the small quantity of blood commonly discharged from it; and lastly, as Mr. Le Dran remarks, because the instant a man receives a gunshot wound, he is struck with a sudden dread he cannot possibly resist. There seems to me to be three reasons for this dread, of which even the wounded person himself is not altogether conscious; in the first place, the idea that gunshot wounds are dangerous; secondly, because the degree of the hurt is not known; thirdly, the instantaneous effect of the concussion, which renders a man much more susceptible of fear. There is a point of time when courage is useless. I shall beg leave, in this place, to insert a case I had from the eye-witnesses, and which demonstrates the bad effect of apprehension on wounded patients. Two officers, in the service of France, were wounded in the last campaign but one; one of them very dangerously, the other, who had been a prisoner a little time before, and had been extremely ill used, but very slightly; they were carried to the same place, and lodged in the same apartment; the first expected to die, but nevertheless recovered in a short time; the second hoped to be cured very quickly, and his wound, a superficial one in the leg, did not discover the least sign of danger. The place they were in was surprized, and they were informed they were made prisoners; the idea of what he had suffered, made so strong an impression on the latter, that he instantly found himself indisposed; the following dressing the wound appeared mortified, every remedy proved useless, and he died in a few days. TISSOT.