Quotation from: Manual of Surgery

Written by: Alexander Miles and Alexis Thomson

The skin, when it is closely peppered with shot, is liable to lose its
vitality, and with the addition of a little sepsis, readily necroses and
comes away as a slough.

When the shot have diverged so as to strike singly, they seldom do much
harm, but fatal damage may be done to the brain or to the aorta, or the
eye may be seriously injured by a single pellet.