WAR'S WOUNDLESS DEATHS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 168, 15 July 1916, Page 15

WAR'S WOUNDLESS DEATHS.

The woundless deaths and disablements have been one of the surprises of the present war. We all know that charged waters or wines have air and carbonic acid gas in solution. Inside the bottle, with the cork airtight, pressure keeps the bubbles in solution. When -we take ont the cork we see the bubbles appear and come up through the liquid. This is because pressure has been lessened, releasing the air and gas which gather into bubbles. A shell filled with high explosive, bursting, has exactly the same effect on a man close to it. In our blood are air ami carbonic acid gas in solution. The violent displacement of the air from the explosion creates a partial vacuum about the bursting centre. The gases from the shell themselves are much lighter thau air. Responding to the lessened atmospheric pressure the air and gas in solution in the blood form immediately into bubbles. These go into the capillaries and stop the circulation. Death at once results. Conversely, the high explosives produce enormous air compression. This compression causes an abrupt fall in the blood pressure, producing an immediate lowering of the oxygen supply in blood and so disturbs all the nervous processes that death, loss of memory and other " wonndless " disabilities ocqtu..