In the latest DISCOVER magazine there is an article about Leishmaniasis, a nasty protozoan
infection transmitted by bite of sand flies. It was first described by a Scottish army phsician
in Dum Dum india in 1903, and was first called Dum Dum fever.

In WWI, both sides accused the other of using "dum-dum" bullets, which were ordinary bullets
with a cross cut in nose to make bullet expand making larger than normal wound.

It was believed they were used in Ireland in 1971,
in article in GUARDIAN for Dec. 6, 2001:
"Raymond McClean, a founder member of the SDLP and later the
mayor of Derry, told Lord Saville's inquiry that larger than usual
entry wounds in some of the victims suggested the use of 'dum-dum' bullets."

I wonder if the name for the altered bullets also originated in India.

"larger than usual entry wounds" would be caused by larger than usual bullets. A good dum dum round doesn't exit the body, since it fragments and all of the force of the bullet is expended inside the body. A bullet that passes cleanly through, while still a very traumatic injury, has nothing on one where a couple hundred fp of energy is dumped into one small area in the body. The internal wounds are horrific and would in an extremity could easily just blow the extremity away from the body. I've seen this once in my rescue squad career. Patient exanguinated within three minutes of being shot.

I have always heard that dum dum ammo got its name in India (possibly where it was used in combat for the first time???}

Dear TEd: I found a site that gave a bit of history, that tied it to India:

"The round nose bullet of the black powder Mark 1 and 2 and the cordite Mark 1 and 2
compared poorly against the .303 inch Dum Dum rounds specially issued in 1897. This
cupro-nickle jacketed bullet, produced at the Dum Dum ammunition factory in India,
had an exposed lead nose which gave rapid expansion on impact.


I also remember reading that if WWI, if you got caught with hand-made dum-dum
bullets, they got used on you.

Horrible tangent...please forgive.

With all this reading about these terrible bullets--I do NOT like guns and have NEVER owned one--why would anyone name that lollipop the "Dum-Dum"?

Bullet retards,
DubDub (not to be confused with)

My dictionary says for dum-dum: Slang, a stupid person, a dumbbell.
So the lollipops are for dumbbells.

My Concise OED gives the etymology as " after Dum-Dum, in India, where they were first produced."