11. When one opening only can be seen, it is presumed the ball has lodged; but this does not follow, although the finger of the surgeon may pass into the wound for some distance. At the battle of Vimiera, I pulled a piece of shirt, with a ball at the bottom of it, out of the thigh of an officer of the 40th Regiment, into which it had gone for at least three inches. After the battle of Toulouse, a ball, which penetrated the surface of the chest, and passed under the pectoral muscle for two inches, was ejected by the elasticity of the rib against which it struck. Scarcely any inconvenience followed, and the officer rapidly recovered. After the battle of Waterloo, I was requested to decide whether a young officer should be allowed to die in a few days, or to have a chance for his life by losing his leg above the knee. The joint was open, the suppuration profuse. A large or grape-shot was supposed to be lodged in the head of the tibia. The limb was amputated, and he is now alive, forty years afterward, but no shot was found in his limb. It had dropped out after doing the injury.
12. The treatment of simple gunshot or flesh wounds should be, under ordinary circumstances, as simple as themselves. Nothing should be applied but a piece of linen or lint, wetted with cold water; this may be retained by a strip of sticking-plaster, or any other thing applicable for the purpose of keeping the injured part covered. A compress of linen, or other similar substance, moistened with cold or iced water when procurable, will be useful; and a few inches of a linen bandage may be sewed on, to prevent the compress from changing its position during sleep. When the wound becomes tender, a little oil, lard, or simple ointment may be placed over it. A roller, as a surgical application, is useless, if not injurious. At the first and second battles in Portugal, every wound had a roller applied over it; it soon became stiff, bloody, and dirty. They did no good, were for the most part cut off with scissors, and thus rendered useless. When really wanted, at a later period, they were not forthcoming. An advancing army cannot, and ought not to carry casks full of rollers into the field; and the apothecary-general had better have instead, two casks or boxes full of good wax candles; for, although every regimental surgeon ought to have four in his panniers, kept as carefully for emergencies as his capital instruments, they will require from time to time to be replaced. No roller should be more than two inches and a quarter wide, and made of good, strong, coarse linen, very much, in fact, the reverse of the rollers which have until lately been supplied to the army.