Surgical Experiences in South Africa, 1899-1900: Being Mainly a Clinical Study of the Nature and Effects of Injuries Produced by Bullets of Small CalibreMakins, George Henry
History
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
Makins, George Henry
Gunshot wounds; South African War, 1899-1902; Surgery, Military
Subsequently the patient suffered with Jacksonian seizures,
sometimes starting spontaneously, sometimes following
interference with the wound. The convulsions commenced in the
muscles of the face, and the twitchings then became general.
Meanwhile the right upper extremity remained weak, although the
fist could be clenched, and all movements of the limb made in
some degree.
Some difficulty was experienced in maintaining a free exit for
the pus, which was however overcome by the use of a silver
tube. All twitchings ceased about a month after the opening of
the abscess, the man improved steadily, and he left for England
fifteen weeks after the reception of the injury, walking well,
with a firm hand-grip, and the wounds soundly healed.
(71) _Frontal injury. Secondary abscess._--Wounded at Modder
River. Aperture of _entry_ (Mauser), just external to the
centre of the right eyebrow; _exit_, above the centre of the
right zygoma. The wound did not render the man immediately
unconscious, but he lost all recollection of what had happened
to him for the next three or four days. The wounds were
explored on the second day, at which time the patient was in a
semi-conscious drowsy state, the pupils contracted and the
pulse slow. A number of fragments of bone and pulped brain
matter were removed.
Subsequently to the operation the patient showed more signs of
cerebral irritation than usual, lying in a semi-conscious state
and more or less curled up. He answered questions on being
bothered. He improved somewhat, and was sent to the Base,
where the improvement continued, but he suffered much from
headache.
Later the headache became much more severe, and eleven weeks
after the injury the man complained of great pain both locally
and over the whole right hemisphere; he lay moaning, with the
temperature subnormal, and the pulse very slow. At times there
was nocturnal delirium.
The wound had remained closed and apparently normal, but now a
small fluctuating pulsating nipple-like swelling developed in
the situation of the aperture of entry. This was incised, and
two ounces of sweet pus evacuated (Professor Dunlop). A tube
was introduced, and removed later on the cessation of
discharge.
Removal of the tube was followed by a recurrence of the same
symptoms, and this occurred on no fewer than six occasions
whenever the wound closed.
At the end of twenty weeks the patient appeared quite well, the
wound had been closed six weeks, the previously irritable
mental state was replaced by placidity, and he was sent home.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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