[Biomechanical and clinical interpretation of firearm wounds. General problems. VI. Propedeutic ABC of terminal ballistics].

Any lengthy and properly structured propedeutic ABC of terminal ballistics must necessarily embrace a comparison between the two main protagonists of gunshot wounds. It is almost a specular, yet distorted image of the ritual act consumed by the larger mammals, not proud of their mutual aggression, but the conformation between mechanics and biology, or between kilogram-metres and life. The two types of physical entity brought together through the unique agency of a new language--both biological and mechanical, but necessarily halting and inadequate--stand out like two parallel lines opposite one another, displaying their respective profiles and most intimate structures. One can take this as far as the biological paradox of the clash between the dimension of power and the chance quality of life.