Goofy myth perpetuated - again.

[doc paul]

On the topic of biting bullets and local pain relief, Dr. Chisolm, in his 1861 tretise on military surgery advocates the sub-cutaneous use of morphine as a local anestehetic and chloroform as a general. In his third revision from 1864, he continues to recomend the same treatments for pain. Topical use of opium was also mentioned in both versions. True that all pistol loads issue were conical bullets but there were some 41 Springfields still using buck and ball ..... a 69 caliber round ball and 3ea 44 caliber buck shots. I have also noted the deformations that Noah mentioned after firing into dirt. I have read that hogs were attracted to the flesh of the dead and may have rooted around for a through and through bullet lodged in the ground. Many veterans have been quoted about the wild hog problem in and around many battle fields.
YOS
Paul W

[NoahBriggs]

Thanks to a posting on the Daybreak B'hoys discussion list I got a link to the Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. I thumbed through the definitions at random and I cam across this definition -

nightingale (Grose 1811 Dictionary)
nightingale
A soldier who, as the term is, sings out at the halberts. It is a point of honour in some regiments, among the grenadiers, never to cry out, become nightingales, whilst under the discipline of the cat of nine tails; to avoid which, they chew a bullet. [Emphasis mine]

Definition taken from The 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, originally by Francis Grose.

I don't know what conclusion to draw from it, as I would wonder what the author's source was for the definition - in other words, he was collecting slang. Thus there may be conflicting definitions.

[Pvt Schnapps]

Noah, I suspect that biting the bullet is more expression than fact, for reasons discussed earlier, like where are they supposed to come from and what about the threat of swallowing and weren't there objects that would work better.

But that's just opinion. As far as actual tooth marks on actual bullets, I can state as an incontrovertible fact that the common gray squirrel will happily chew on a minie ball.

There's no citation here, just first hand observation from perhaps one of the few people you know who ever had both in his study at the same time. If I remember, I'll show it to you the next time we run into each other.

Her name was Jenny, which also happened to be the name of Karl Marx's wife, but oddly enough that was just coincidence.

[nightstalker]

Curiosity has me ask, did any of these conical balls with tooth marks have rifling marks on them as well? Regarding the possibility of a pig leaving their tooth impressions on the bullets doesn't sound right to me, after having watched pigs totally pulverize dry corn cobs and grain pellets in seconds, makes me think that a bullet of pure soft lead would not have much of a chance maintaining any kind of shape at all.
Another thought - here in my State, the DEP passed a law some years back, forbidding the use of lead ammo while migritory bird hunting due to the birds being poisoned by the lead. Apparently, the birds would eat the fallen shot. So, if birds and pigs like to eat lead, perhaps other animals would have the taste for lead as well.
I remember fishing with my grandfather as a child and using split shot line weights. They would be squeezed onto the line with your teeth. Didn't take much to flatten that small weight out flat. I remember that the lead had a sweet taste to it. Could be the reason why they would be sucked on to quench thirst.
My thoughts, Thanks,
Nightstalker

[Chris G.]

I think it's entirely possible that bullets were used for a way to combat screaming in pain. Are there any references from the period of soldiers "biting the bullet" for this purpose? Yes. There are references to it already posted in this thread. I'm sure also, that there are hucksters out there passing off fakes. Besides, where were all these bullet biting hogs at, when the ANV was starving to death? Seems to me, that if they were close enough to wander in to abandoned field hospitals or areas where the dead were gathered for burial, that eventually a starving soldier would have stumbled across one and put a bullet in it. I know if i was starving, and there were hogs around...I'd have been eating "high on the hog"

I am a hunter and angler, and an avid outdoorsman. I would suppose that any soldiers in the ANV from rural areas were also. If there were game such as deer, hog, rabbits, game birds, etc. around that foraging parties would have found them.

Regards,
Chris Graves

[GeorgeWunderlich]

Sounds like a MythBusters job to me!

It has already been done. University of Minn. Milwaukee School of Dentistry has done the test and proven two points:

1) The human mouth can exert enough force to make a clear tooth mark in a bullet

2) Several originals were submitted for identification of the marks and they were human bite marks.

The NMCWM is getting ready to publish the findings BUT were are also looking into the reasons for the marks and trying to locate all period accounts that might help in understanding why they were bitten. We doubt any medical staff involvement but we want to be as sure as possible.

George Wunderlich
Executive Director
National Museum of Civil War Medicine.

[Pvt Schnapps]

A couple of thoughts. First, Laidley's article "Breech-Loading Musket" in the "United States Service Magazine," vol. 3 (January 1865) has the famous account of 27,574 muskets picked up at Gettysburg, 12,000 of which were double-loaded, and 6,000 of which had three to ten loads each. He states that, in the excitement of battle, "Oftentimes the cartridge was loaded without being first broken, and in many instances it was inserted, the ball down first." In the latter case, it's possible that the soldier bit down on the wrong end of the cartridge. If he was scared enough, he might bite hard enough to leave a mark.

Outside of battle, I don't know, but I can imagine soldiers biting bullets for pain if they were sitting up for certain minor but painful operations, like excising an in-grown toenail. In that case it might be a kind of folk anesthetic, such as already mentioned in regard to floggings.

As for the expression "to bite the bullet," I see a lot of speculation on line, some of which refers to biting cartridges rather than any medicinal end. But the practice of biting bullets predates cartridges. Back when the "shotte" loaded powder and ball separately, the mouth apparently served some as an improvised "ready bag." For example, there's this instruction from de Gheyn's 1607 "Exercise of Armes", addressing the 25th of the 42 commands for loading (and to think I once found nine commands confusing ):

"...and if he will shoote with a bullet he shall take the bullet with the same hand (wherewith he now hath the skowring stick shorter) out of his mouth or from thence where he carrieth his bullets, and with like quicknes put it into the mouth of the peece...."

[johnduffer]

"...and if he will shoote with a bullet he shall take the bullet with the same hand (wherewith he now hath the skowring stick shorter) out of his mouth or from thence where he carrieth his bullets, and with like quicknes put it into the mouth of the peece...."

To think, if not for personal preference "biting the bullet" could just have easily come down to us as "taking the bullet from your pocket", "taking the bullet from your left hand", "taking the bullet from between your knees", etc, et al. 'On such a trifle turns history'.

[Pvt Schnapps]

"...and if he will shoote with a bullet he shall take the bullet with the same hand (wherewith he now hath the skowring stick shorter) out of his mouth or from thence where he carrieth his bullets, and with like quicknes put it into the mouth of the peece...."

To think, if not for personal preference "biting the bullet" could just have easily come down to us as "taking the bullet from your pocket", taking the bullet from your left hand", "taking the bullet from between your knees", etc, et al. 'On such a trifle turns history'.

Loading a matchlock already requires about three hands but, yes, I'd enjoy seeing you demonstrate taking the bullet from between your knees.

[Blair]

"...and if he will shooter with a bullet he shall take the bullet with the same hand (wherewith he now hath the scoring stick shorter) out of his mouth or from thence where he Garreth his bullets, and with like quickens put it into the mouth of the peece...."

To think, if not for personal preference "biting the bullet" could just have easily come down to us as "taking the bullet from your pocket", "taking the bullet from your left hand", "taking the bullet from between your knees", etc, et AL. 'On such a trifle turns history'.

All of this, and the terminology smacks Matchlock historical time period.
John, can you relate any of your Quote to a spacific period in history? and does it relate to this period of history?