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DUM-DUMS
1309 administration that
opposition of vested interests, stupidity, folly, pig-headedness, and even wickedness whose strength seems not to have been appreciably lessened in the past twelve years.2 that
"DIE EWIGE MASKE"
FEW of us can resist a busman’s holiday, especially when it promises a ride through familiar country. The Swiss film " The Eternal Mask," now running at the Academy Cinema, Oxford-street, London, W., shows first the professional dilemma of a young physician-pathologist, portrayed with great skill by Mr. M. Wieman, and later his reaction to the crisis he has precipitated. Convinced by animal experiment of the value of a serum he has produced against epidemic meningitis, Dr. Dumartin tries it on a dying man, in defiance of his chief’s orders, with initial success. The patient, after rallying, dies of an embolism which, it is suggested rather surprisingly, could not possibly be due to the intravenous injection of the serum. Unfortunately the hero has been unwise enough to hint to the patient’s wife that he is experimenting with a new remedy, and the most stirring episode in the film, from the medical point of view, is the demonstration of the swift consequences of this indiscretion. The widow turns on him, the local newspapers print abusive headlines, and the efforts of his chief to cover his action and to defend the reputation of the hospital are fruitless because Dr. Dumartin has disappeared. His wanderings about town, half-crazed by the tumult he has raised, his rescue from attempted suicide, and his painful return to sanity make a dramatic story. The contrast between the unsuccessful methods of handling the doctor’s distemper and the wise psychotherapy which finally restores memory and balance is more likely to impress lay than medical members of the audience, but all will admire the effective use of film technique to suggest the mental adventures of a split personality. There is little to criticise in the vivid presentation of hospital life and ethics, though we ourselves have never met an institution so fortunate in attracting good-lookers to its medical and nursing staff. DUM-DUMS
THE dramatic excursion into detection which Dr. Osborn describes on p. 1295 has led him to make some useful comments on bullet wounds, and it is appropriate that these should appear at a time when the air is thick with accusations about the use and misuse of the so-called dum-dum bullet. On reviewing the evidence it will be found, we believe, that there is no good reason for regarding these as more horrible than other instruments of warfare. In the first place the definition of them is in practice exceedingly loose. We learn from the " Shorter Oxford Dictionary " that they are named after Dum Dum, a military station near Calcutta, and that the term refers to " a soft-nosed bullet which expands on impact." But the word " expand " is a little deceptive ; for all that the soft-nosed bullet does is to break into smaller portions when it encounters hard tissues such as bone. It is here that it differs from jacketed bullets which, when fired at high velocity, have a considerable penetrating power ; and the two types of bullet are designed to have different uses. The soft-nosed bullet is not intended to pass through the body ; its whole force is utilised in inflicting a violent blow, and it has a correspondingly high stopping-power. Hence it is 2 A leading article
on
in THE LANCET in 1924
the subject (quoted by Sinton) appeared (vol. i., p. 855).
used in hunting large or dangerous animals (e.g., rhinoceros or leopard), which are apt to take little immediate notice of a penetrating bullet ; and for the same reason it has been employed by civilised nations in some of their colonial wars. The " dumdum " bullet is now banned by the rules of war, but the line between legitimate and illegitimate is so slight that British prisoners came near to execution by the Germans in 1914 because they carried the regulation soft lead bullets for their service revolvers ! The objection to the dum-dum seems in fact a little unrealistic. Lord Mottistone, in the House of Lords on May 12th, after speaking of them-perhaps truly enough-as more cruel than gas, went on to describe the kind of wound these projectiles make in animals. " There may be a very little hole in he front," said, " but I have frequently seen on the other side a hole as big as both palms." Since the object of the dum-dum is to avoid passage through the body, this type of wound must clearly be exceptional ; but the real objection to Lord Mottistone’s argument is that he said nothing about the havoc wrought by the standard jacketed bullet from the ordinary service rifle (to say nothing of the high explosive shell). The jacketed bullet fired at high velocity (over 2300 feet per second) can cause wounds as serious as any dum-dum, its exact effect depending mainly on the distance it traverses. At close range (under 200-300 yards) it travels with a slight wobble which usually leads to a large entry wound ; at 300-800 yards it leaves the classical small entry and large exit wounds ; at over 800 yards it is again likely to make a large jagged hole at entry. The regulation British service rifle bullet, with a velocity of 2400 feet per second, may thus reproduce the damage done by a dum-dum ; but even if this is avoided the destruction of tissues along its track can be at least as disastrous. It may cause no wound " as big as both palms," but when fired at close ranges it may have a hidden cavitation action, producing a " tissue quake " with haemorrhages an inch or more from the path of the bullet, which often means gross destruction. This particular effect of the penetrating hard bullet is obtainable only under appropriate conditions. To get the effect of the dum-dum, however, is ordinarily quite easy. There is no need to break international conventions by cutting the hard jacket off the bullet’s point : all that is necessary is to use a rifle of high muzzle velocity at short range, or a firearm of low muzzle velocity with a soft lead bullet. RESEARCH DEFENCE SOCIETY THE antagonists of medical research have been less pugnacious than usual during the past year, but the country is still being flooded with the propaganda of the financially well-supported antivivisection societies. Sir Leonard Rogers, as honorary treasurer of the Research Defence Society, has inquired into the finances of these societies and has discovered that since 1912, when the report of the Royal Commission appeared, condemning antivivisection methods, they have succeeded in collecting no less than 1:600,000 from the public. In its annual report the society’s committee draws attention to the antivivisectionist shops that have become permanent features in certain localities. Some years ago in the House of Commons the Home Secretary said that he had no power to stop these displays : he thought then that the persons responsible could only damage their own cause by spreading the false belief that in this country cutting operations on animals were
opposition of vested interests, stupidity, folly, pig-headedness, and even wickedness whose strength seems not to have been appreciably lessened in the past twelve years.2 that
"DIE EWIGE MASKE"
FEW of us can resist a busman’s holiday, especially when it promises a ride through familiar country. The Swiss film " The Eternal Mask," now running at the Academy Cinema, Oxford-street, London, W., shows first the professional dilemma of a young physician-pathologist, portrayed with great skill by Mr. M. Wieman, and later his reaction to the crisis he has precipitated. Convinced by animal experiment of the value of a serum he has produced against epidemic meningitis, Dr. Dumartin tries it on a dying man, in defiance of his chief’s orders, with initial success. The patient, after rallying, dies of an embolism which, it is suggested rather surprisingly, could not possibly be due to the intravenous injection of the serum. Unfortunately the hero has been unwise enough to hint to the patient’s wife that he is experimenting with a new remedy, and the most stirring episode in the film, from the medical point of view, is the demonstration of the swift consequences of this indiscretion. The widow turns on him, the local newspapers print abusive headlines, and the efforts of his chief to cover his action and to defend the reputation of the hospital are fruitless because Dr. Dumartin has disappeared. His wanderings about town, half-crazed by the tumult he has raised, his rescue from attempted suicide, and his painful return to sanity make a dramatic story. The contrast between the unsuccessful methods of handling the doctor’s distemper and the wise psychotherapy which finally restores memory and balance is more likely to impress lay than medical members of the audience, but all will admire the effective use of film technique to suggest the mental adventures of a split personality. There is little to criticise in the vivid presentation of hospital life and ethics, though we ourselves have never met an institution so fortunate in attracting good-lookers to its medical and nursing staff. DUM-DUMS
THE dramatic excursion into detection which Dr. Osborn describes on p. 1295 has led him to make some useful comments on bullet wounds, and it is appropriate that these should appear at a time when the air is thick with accusations about the use and misuse of the so-called dum-dum bullet. On reviewing the evidence it will be found, we believe, that there is no good reason for regarding these as more horrible than other instruments of warfare. In the first place the definition of them is in practice exceedingly loose. We learn from the " Shorter Oxford Dictionary " that they are named after Dum Dum, a military station near Calcutta, and that the term refers to " a soft-nosed bullet which expands on impact." But the word " expand " is a little deceptive ; for all that the soft-nosed bullet does is to break into smaller portions when it encounters hard tissues such as bone. It is here that it differs from jacketed bullets which, when fired at high velocity, have a considerable penetrating power ; and the two types of bullet are designed to have different uses. The soft-nosed bullet is not intended to pass through the body ; its whole force is utilised in inflicting a violent blow, and it has a correspondingly high stopping-power. Hence it is 2 A leading article
on
in THE LANCET in 1924
the subject (quoted by Sinton) appeared (vol. i., p. 855).
used in hunting large or dangerous animals (e.g., rhinoceros or leopard), which are apt to take little immediate notice of a penetrating bullet ; and for the same reason it has been employed by civilised nations in some of their colonial wars. The " dumdum " bullet is now banned by the rules of war, but the line between legitimate and illegitimate is so slight that British prisoners came near to execution by the Germans in 1914 because they carried the regulation soft lead bullets for their service revolvers ! The objection to the dum-dum seems in fact a little unrealistic. Lord Mottistone, in the House of Lords on May 12th, after speaking of them-perhaps truly enough-as more cruel than gas, went on to describe the kind of wound these projectiles make in animals. " There may be a very little hole in he front," said, " but I have frequently seen on the other side a hole as big as both palms." Since the object of the dum-dum is to avoid passage through the body, this type of wound must clearly be exceptional ; but the real objection to Lord Mottistone’s argument is that he said nothing about the havoc wrought by the standard jacketed bullet from the ordinary service rifle (to say nothing of the high explosive shell). The jacketed bullet fired at high velocity (over 2300 feet per second) can cause wounds as serious as any dum-dum, its exact effect depending mainly on the distance it traverses. At close range (under 200-300 yards) it travels with a slight wobble which usually leads to a large entry wound ; at 300-800 yards it leaves the classical small entry and large exit wounds ; at over 800 yards it is again likely to make a large jagged hole at entry. The regulation British service rifle bullet, with a velocity of 2400 feet per second, may thus reproduce the damage done by a dum-dum ; but even if this is avoided the destruction of tissues along its track can be at least as disastrous. It may cause no wound " as big as both palms," but when fired at close ranges it may have a hidden cavitation action, producing a " tissue quake " with haemorrhages an inch or more from the path of the bullet, which often means gross destruction. This particular effect of the penetrating hard bullet is obtainable only under appropriate conditions. To get the effect of the dum-dum, however, is ordinarily quite easy. There is no need to break international conventions by cutting the hard jacket off the bullet’s point : all that is necessary is to use a rifle of high muzzle velocity at short range, or a firearm of low muzzle velocity with a soft lead bullet. RESEARCH DEFENCE SOCIETY THE antagonists of medical research have been less pugnacious than usual during the past year, but the country is still being flooded with the propaganda of the financially well-supported antivivisection societies. Sir Leonard Rogers, as honorary treasurer of the Research Defence Society, has inquired into the finances of these societies and has discovered that since 1912, when the report of the Royal Commission appeared, condemning antivivisection methods, they have succeeded in collecting no less than 1:600,000 from the public. In its annual report the society’s committee draws attention to the antivivisectionist shops that have become permanent features in certain localities. Some years ago in the House of Commons the Home Secretary said that he had no power to stop these displays : he thought then that the persons responsible could only damage their own cause by spreading the false belief that in this country cutting operations on animals were