A Capillary Crime, and Other Stories — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
A Capillary Crime, and Other Stories
John Stuart Mill · en
I found room for my charge in one of the upper rooms of the hospital,
where he was washed and put into a warm bed. His wound proved to be a
severe one. A Berdan bullet had passed through the thick part of the
left pectoral, out again, and into the head of the humerus. The surgeon
said that the arm would have to be operated on, to remove the upper
quarter of the bone.
The next morning I went to the hospital to see what had become of the
wounded man, for the incident of the previous evening had made a deep
impression on my mind. As I walked through the corridor I saw a group
around a temporary bed in the corner. Some one was evidently about to
undergo an operation, for an assistant held at intervals a great cone of
linen over a haggard face on the pillow, and a strong smell of
chloroform filled the air. As I approached, the surgeon turned around,
and, recognizing me, said with a nod and a smile, “We are at work on
your friend.” While he was speaking, he bared the left shoulder of the
wounded man, and I saw the holes made by the bullet as it passed from
the pectoral into the upper part of the deltoid. Without waiting longer,
the surgeon made a straight cut downward from near the acromion through
the thick fibre of the deltoid to the bone. He attempted to sever the
tendons so as to slip the head of the humerus from the socket, but
failed. He wasted no time in further trial, but made a second incision
from the bullet-hole diagonally to the middle of the first cut, and
turned the pointed flap up over the shoulder. It was now easy to unjoint
the bones, and but a moment’s work to saw off the shattered piece of the
humerus, tie the severed arteries, and bring the flap again into its
place.