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wsanto · (This post was last modified: 08-20-2013 08:11 AM by wsanto.)

(08-19-2013 02:34 PM)J. Beckert Wrote: I'm at work, but I'll check when I get home. I believe it stated it was a common occurrance in battlefield fatalities when the shot entered the rear of the head. I believe they stated it was due to a sudden surge of pressure in the brain.

I've never heard Lincoln's head hit the rail.

That's the one I was thinking of Roger. Thanks.

After further study, I believe Joe and Roger are correct that the orbital plate fractures were caused by the shockwave of the bullet and not, as I have speculated, by a frontal force on the brow.

The frontal bone forms the brow and then reflects backward to form the top of the eye sockets. The orbital plate is basically the top portion of the eye socket and is wafer thin with relation to other bones of the skull . According to Dr. Woodward, they were fractured and the broken bone fragments were pushed upward toward the frontal lobe of the brain.

It now makes sense to me that the shockwave of the penetrating bullet was travelling cephalad (upward) from the occipital entry wound below the ear line and would have exerted an upward force on the orbital plates, fracturing them, in this case, and pushing the fragments toward the frontal lobe.

(08-19-2013 10:04 PM)JMadonna Wrote:
(08-19-2013 09:21 AM)L Verge Wrote: I don't remember anyone ever mentioning the very plausible idea that Lincoln's head pitched forward at the moment of impact and hit the box's railing. Good point to consider.

I recall from the Kennedy shooting that the head naturally goes backward after being hit by a bullet from the rear not forward.

I believe you are correct about Kennedy. Although the initial force of the bullet hitting the skull would force the head forward, the high speed nature of the bullet travelling though the soft tissue of the brain would overcome that intial force with the equal and opposite force of the brain's soft tissue recoiling backward from the momentum of the bullet.

Lincoln's case is different as this was not a high-speed gunshot wound and so the recoiling would be less by my guess. Lincoln's wound was also penetrating (no exit wound) as opposed to Kennedy's perforating wound.