Transactions of the Massachusetts Medico-Legal Society . I have made some investigations on this subject. The question is, Does a bullet entering the surface of the human bodyobliquely make an absolutely circular wound ? It is not doubted that bulletsfired point blank and at a little distance may turn to such a degree as to makean oval or irregular wound. In answer to the above question both the experts for the defence testifiedthat a bullet fired obliquely often makes an absolutely circular opening. said that this was true because the skin, being an elastic and contrac-tile tissue,
Transactions of the Massachusetts Medico-Legal Society . I have made some investigations on this subject. The question is, Does a bullet entering the surface of the human bodyobliquely make an absolutely circular wound ? It is not doubted that bulletsfired point blank and at a little distance may turn to such a degree as to makean oval or irregular wound. In answer to the above question both the experts for the defence testifiedthat a bullet fired obliquely often makes an absolutely circular opening. said that this was true because the skin, being an elastic and contrac-tile tissue, contracts after an injury, and assumes more or less the shape of theobject which caused the wound. 204 The Murder of James Farrar. We may admit the truth of his reason without subscribing to his conclusion ;and, if it can be shown that the form of a bullet entering the skin at an angleis elliptical and not circular, he must necessarily change his conclusion. Let us now see what is the shape of a bullets cross-section as it enters theskin at an The figure represents a thirty-eight calibre bullet entering the skin at anangle of forty-five degrees. The problem is to find the length of the line ef. We know that the angle ais forty-five degrees, and that the base of the right-angle triangle is thirty-eight, the diameter of the bullet. It follows then that the angles a and h areboth forty-five degrees, and that the perpendicular is also thirty-eight. By ex-tracting the square root of the sums of the squares of the other two sides, wefind that the line ef is fifty-three. This shows that the form of the wound isan ellipse whose major axis is fifty-three, and minor axis is thirty-eight. Now, if the skin contracts after the bullet enters, as it undoubtedly does, itis absurd to say that it contracts in only one diameter. It is more reasonableto suppose that there is a general contraction, and that the size, and not theform of the opening, is changed. To see if this theory holds t
Size: 2001px × 1248px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, bookidtransactions, bookyear1888
