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Source: A Text-Book of Legal Medicine
Source type: book
Document type: book chapter
Document title: “Wounds in Their Medicolegal Relations (Continued)” [chapter 20]
Author(s): Draper, Frank Winthrop
Publisher: W. B. Saunders Company
Place of publication: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Year of publication: 1910
Pagination: 341-57 (excerpt below includes only pages 355-56)

 
Citation
Draper, Frank Winthrop. “Wounds in Their Medicolegal Relations (Continued)” [chapter 20]. A Text-Book of Legal Medicine. Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders, 1910: pp. 341-57.
 
Transcription
excerpt of chapter
 
Keywords
William McKinley (autopsy).
 
Named persons
William McKinley.
 
Notes
Reprinted 1910; copyright 1905.

From title page: Fully Illustrated.

From title page: By Frank Winthrop Draper, A.M., M.D. (Harv.), Professor of Legal Medicine in Harvard University; Medical Examiner for the County of Suffolk, Massachusetts; Medicolegal Pathologist at the Boston City Hospital; Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; etc.
 
Document

 

Wounds in Their Medicolegal Relations (Continued) [excerpt]

     Attention need hardly be called to the fact that the direction of the track of the bullet through the tissues frequently [355][356] fails to correspond with the direction of the line of fire. Bullets are readily diverted from their course; a very slight obstacle suffices to change their direction; bone, fascia, or any other resisting tissues readily give a new course. This is particularly true of round bullets. The deviation may occur immediately on entering the body, or in any part of the course. Wounds of the abdomen are probably the most difficult to follow. This is because, in addition to the ready deflection of the bullet, the organs are constantly shifting position. Through these causes search for the missile at the autopsy after a fatal pistol-shot wound of the abdomen is always a matter of difficulty, frequently a fruitless task. Such was the case at the autopsy of President McKinley. Prolonged search failed to find the missile after it had passed through the stomach and pancreas and had grazed the kidney.

 

 


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