Existing comment:
Probe used by Surgeon General Joseph Barnes to locate the bullet.
Prior to the discovery of x-rays, physicians had difficulty differentiating between bullet and bone within a wound, so a porcelain-tipped probe was used to explore the wound site. If the probe encountered a lead bullet, a mark would appear on the white tip of the probe.
At about 2:00am, Surgeon General Barnes introduced a silver probe into the wound, which met an obstruction at a depth of about three inches. He determined that the obstruction was a plug of bone lodged in the path of the ball. The probe passed by the obstruction but was too short to follow the entire track of the wound. He then introduced this long, Nelaton probe that passed into the track of the wound two inches beyond the plug of bone and struck what he believed was the bullet, passed beyond it, and encountered fragments of the orbital bones of the left eye socket. The bullet did not make a mark on the top of the probe. (The probe is missing its porcelain tip.) |