Post-Mortem Examination in a Case of Rifleshot Injury

hole immediately below the xiphoid cartilage, the skin around being much blackened by the discharge. On opening the chest the bullet was found to have passed slightly upwards through the pericardium to the spine. The right side of the heart was torn to rags, two vertebroe were completely disintegrated, and three ribs on either side broken close to their vertebral attachment. The spine was cut quite across, and the lower segment pushed backwards considerably. There was no wound of exit, and no portion of the bullet could be found under the skin or in the muscles of the back. From the neighbourhood of the spinal injury I recovered, after careful search, six fragments of bullet, weighing respectively, 94, 54,