There is a singular species of accident to which engagements at sea are liable, the WIND OF A BALL, as it is called. If a cannon ball in its flight passes close to any part of the body, it renders it livid and numb for some time[132]. It is most dangerous when it approaches the stomach; and there was an instance of a man in the last battle, who, upon a ball passing close to his stomach, dropped down dead instantaneously, without the least visible marks of injury. Another, in consequence of a ball passing close to his belly, remained without sense or motion for some time, and a large livid tumor arose on the part, but he recovered. I attended a man at the hospital at Barbadoes, who had the buttons of his trowsers carried off by a cannon ball, without its having touched the body. The _pubis_ was livid and swelled for some time after: he suffered exquisite pain from strangury, which seemed to proceed from a _paralysis_ of the bladder, for he voided no water without a catheter for near three months, after which time he recovered. I know a brave young officer[133] in the army, who had his epaulette carried off by a cannon ball at Charlestown, in consequence of which the shoulder and adjacent parts of the neck were affected for some time. A like accident happened to a marine officer in one of the late engagements; but in neither of these was the head materially affected, nor is it so apt to be affected in this way as the stomach. I never knew death the consequence of the wind of a ball on the head; though an officer[134] in the Sultan, at the battle of Grenada, was so stunned by a shot passing near his temple, as to be insensible for some time, but he recovered entirely in a few hours[135].