y
of this bullet to that seen in the ricochet in fig. 32 was exact. The
form is of great importance both on account of the degree of laceration
it effects in the track, the presence of two foreign bodies in the
wound, and from the fact that it can be produced by making the bullet
travel through sand or antheaps, since both the former in the shape of
sandbags and the latter in their natural state so often formed the cover
to men during the campaign. Bullets of 6.5 mm., such as the
Krag-Joergensen, with steel envelopes apparently break up with great ease
in sand.

Fig. 33 shows a form not uncommon when the bullet comes into contact
with the ribs. It is produced in bullets travelling at a low rate of
velocity and striking by their side. I several times met with it when
the bullet was retained, and also without fracture of the rib. In some
variety it might occur after impact with any narrow margin of bone, and
some importance attaches to the form, since it affords evidence as to
the ease with which alterations in symmetry can be produced in Mauser
bullets. Again its bent outline favours deviation in the further course
of the bullet subsequent to impact with the bone, a result which I
observed on more than one occasion.

[Illustration: FIG. 33.--Grooved Mauser removed from anterior abdominal
wall after crossing the ribs. I saw several such removed from the
thoracic wall, and am inclined to attribute the grooving to impact with
the margin of the ribs]

Lastly, the question of actual spluttering or breaking up of the bullets
must be considered. It is extraordinary into how many fragments either a
Lee-Metford or a Mauser bullet may break up if it strike a hard body
while travelling at a high rate of velocity. Fragmentation is exhibited
in the skiagram forming the subject of plate XI. p. 194. It is somewhat
remarkable how often this occurred when the short hard bones of the
metacarpus were struck. With regard to the casing, the separation of
small scales of the nickel plating has already been referred to;
reference to the skiagrams, plates IX. and XVI., shows how readily the
whole thickness of the mantle breaks up into small fragments, even when
the bullet is travelling at moderately low degrees of velocity, and
this I believe to be a special characteristic of the thin
cupro-nickel-plated steel mantles.

Any variety of cased bullet, however, when it strikes against a stone,
hard ground, or a bone, may be broken into innumer