[p. 155] the
truth of the matter, you must dissolve the jet-black ointment, and
fill the wound with it when this dissolved, and apply a linen rag
smeared with oil, and then a cataplasm of the maza with a bandage;
and on the next day, having cleaned out the wound, scrape the bone
with the raspatory. And if the bone is not sound, but fractured and
contused, the rest of it which is scraped will be white; but the fracture
and contusion, having imbibed the preparation, will appear black,
while the rest of the bone is white. And you must again scrape more
deeply the fracture where it appears black; and, if you thus remove
the fissure, and cause it to disappear, you may conclude that there
has been a contusion of the bone to a greater or less extent, which
has occasioned the fracture that has disappeared under the raspatory;
but it is less dangerous, and a matter of less consequence, when the
fissure has been effaced. But if the fracture extend deep, and do
not seem likely to disappear when scraped, such an accident requires
trepanning. But having performed this operation, you must apply the
other treatment to the wound.
Part 15
You must be upon your guard lest the bone sustain any injury from
the fleshy parts if not properly treated. When the bone has been sawed
and otherwise denuded, whether it be actually sound, or only appears
to be so, but has sustained some injury from the blow, there may be
danger of its suppurating (although it would not otherwise have done
so), if the flesh which surrounds the bone be ill cured, and become
inflamed and strangled; for it gets into a febrile state, and becomes
much inflamed. For the bone acquires heat and inflammation from the
surrounding flesh, along with irritation and throbbing, and the other
mischiefs which are in the flesh itself, and from these it gets into
a state of suppuration. It is a bad thing for the flesh (granulations?)
in an ulcer to be moist and mouldy, and to require a long time to
become clean. But the wound should be made to suppurate as quickly
as possible; for, thus the parts surrounding the wound would be the
least disposed to inflammation, and would become the soonest clean;
for the flesh which has been chopped and bruised by the blow, must
necessarily suppurate and slough away. But when cleaned the wound
must
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