Several of our cases on this downward journey were interesting. Corporal
Anderson of the Black Watch lay in our ward, struck deaf and dumb from
the bursting of a Boer shell, though he was otherwise uninjured by the
explosion. Wounds through the intestines were to be found here and
there. Such injuries in the larger intestines, if left to themselves and
not operated on, have--when inflicted by the humane Mauser bullet--a
fairly good chance, and that is all that can be said. One man had been
shot through the elbow as he lay at the "present". The bullet had
shattered the bone, but there was every prospect of the arm being saved.
How different would have been the probable effects, in such a case, of
the big Martini bullet!
One incident which seemed to amuse the men very much was this. During
the Modder River battle a bullet struck a corporal on the back; it
glanced superficially across his shoulder and then piercing his
canteen-tin remained inside. The corporal, imagining himself _in
extremis_, fell to the ground and called for the ambulance. Somebody ran
up to the prostrate man, and after a diligent but fruitless search for
the wound at length discovered the bullet in the canteen-tin. The
apparently moribund corporal, seeing this, instantly recovered, and
leaping briskly to his feet told them to countermand the
stretcher-bearers and pressed forward to the attack with renewed
vigour.
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