When the musket–ball strikes at a distance from the weapon by which it was propelled, but still preserves great velocity, the appearances of the wound are changed. An opening is observed, irregularly circular, with edges generally a little torn; and the whole wound is slightly inverted. There may be darkening of the margin, of a livid purple tinge, from the effects of contusion, or it may be simply deadlike and pale. Should the ball have passed out, the wound of exit will be probably larger, more torn, with slight eversion of its edges and protrusion of the subcutaneous fat, which is thus rendered visible. These appearances are the more easily recognized, the earlier the wound is examined. They are more obvious if a round musket–ball has caused the injury than when it has been inflicted by a cylindro–conoidal bullet. Indeed, with the latter, where it has simply passed through the soft tissues of an extremity of the body at full speed, it is usually very difficult to distinguish by its appearance the wound of entrance from that of exit. In medico–legal investigations concerning gunshot wounds, it must be often a matter of great importance to decide this point; but to the military surgeon, more especially from the circumstances connected with the new projectiles, it has become a subject of little practical interest. When the indirect and tortuous penetration of balls was the rule rather than the exception, a knowledge of the spot at which the ball entered was often useful in diagnosing the mischief it had probably committed in its passage, and in determining the part of the wound where foreign bodies might be supposed to be carried and to be lodging. When the track of the ball is nearly in a straight line, as now usually happens, such information cannot be looked for from knowing the relation of either opening to the entrance or passage of the missile.