1. _Psychical disturbance and shock._--Some remarkable instances of psychical disturbance were observed, and although perhaps in no way influenced by the calibre of the projectile, they seem worthy of note in this place. Thus a patient wounded over the cervical spine and who suffered later with a slight degree of spinal concussion emitted an involuntary shriek like that of a wounded hare on being struck; another (Martini wound), after receiving a wound of the chest, lost all sense of his surroundings for a considerable period, and occupied himself in attempts to write on a white stone lying near him on the veldt; then suddenly realising his position he was greatly bewildered in trying to account for his own action. A similar instance of preoccupation is probably offered by the dead man in the accompanying photograph (fig. 45), whose arms, forearms, and hands had evidently been in play until the actual moment of death. Again the influence of the psychical state on the actual occurrence of shock was often illustrated by the mental condition of the wounded after a battle; thus after the battles of Belmont and Graspan the patients came into hospital in excellent spirits, and minimised their injuries in the wish of rapidly regaining the front; while after the battle of Magersfontein the men were depressed and miserable, shock was more pronounced, and their sufferings were undoubtedly greater. On the whole, however, shock was by no means a prominent symptom in the small-bore injuries of soft parts, and was possibly less than when larger bullets were the rule, and again it was often remarkably slight after the infliction of serious visceral injury. Still shock was observed in a considerable proportion of the patients, and its occurrence appeared to vary under very much the same conditions as obtain in civil practice. Grades of severity depended on individual idiosyncrasy, on the degree of excitement or preoccupation at the moment of injury, and to a certain degree on the range of fire at which the injury was received. [Illustration: FIG. 45.--Note position of head, neck, and forearms in upper figure]