ABSTRACT
More recently, certain aspects of wound ballistics have been studied by means of computer simulation. Numerous and vivid reports of projectile wounds caused by lead musket balls appeared in medical literature for hundreds of years. The period from 1870 to 1900 was noteworthy for the development of weapon technology and for experimental studies of projectile wounds. G. R. Callender & R. W. French also pointed out that the high rate of energy delivery may explain the very destructive wounds caused by small fragments from high explosive shells which had been noted during World War I. With the invention of high explosives during the second half of the nineteenth century, the velocity of projectiles increased dramatically. The notion that certain projectiles have more 'stopping power' than others, in the sense of having a noticeably higher probability of incapacitation within seconds, is largely a myth.
