Arrow-Wounds.--According to Otis the illustrious Baron Percy was wont
to declare that military surgery had its origin in the treatment of
wounds inflicted by darts and arrows; he used to quote Book XI of the
Iliad in behalf of his belief, and to cite the cases of the patients of
Chiron and Machaon, Menelaus and Philoctetes, and Eurypiles, treated by
Patroclus; he was even tempted to believe with Sextus that the name
iatros, medicus, was derived from ios, which in the older times
signified "sagitta," and that the earliest function of our professional
ancestors was the extraction of arrows and darts. An instrument called
beluleum was invented during the long Peloponnesian War, over four
hundred years before the Christian era. It was a rude
extracting-forceps, and was used by Hippocrates in the many campaigns
in which he served. His immediate successor, Diocles, invented a
complicated instrument for extracting foreign bodies, called
graphiscos, which consisted of a canula with hooks. Otis states that it
was not until the wars of Augustus that Heras of Cappadocia designed
the famous duck-bill forceps which, with every conceivable
modification, has continued in use until our time. Celsus instructs
that in extracting arrow-heads the entrance-wound should be dilated,
the barb of the arrow-head crushed by strong pliers, or protected
between the edges of a split reed, and thus withdrawn without
laceration of the soft parts. According to the same authority, Paulus
Aegineta also treated fully of wounds by arrow-heads, and described a
method used in his time to remove firmly-impacted arrows. Albucasius
and others of the Arabian school did little or nothing toward aiding
our knowledge of the means of extracting foreign bodies. After the
fourteenth century the attention of surgeons was directed to wounds
from projectiles impelled by gunpowder. In the sixteenth century arrows
were still considerably used in warfare, and we find Pare a delineating
the treatment of this class of injuries with the sovereign good sense
that characterized his writings. As the use of firearms became
prevalent the literature of wounds from arrows became meager, and the
report of an instance in the present day is very rare.

Bill has collected statistics and thoroughly discussed this subject,
remarking upon the rapidity with which American Indians discharge their
arrows, and states that it is exceptional to meet with only a single
wound. It is commonly be