[p. 157] bone
are driven in upon the membrane, I mean the upper and lower, the wound,
if treated in the same way, will very soon get well, and the depressed
bones will quickly rise up.
Part 18
The bones of children are thinner and softer, for this reason, that
they contain more blood [than those of adults]; and they are porous
and spongy, and neither dense nor hard. And when wounded to a similar
or inferior degree by weapons of the same or even of an inferior power,
the bone of a young person more readily and quickly suppurates, and
that in less time than the bone of an older person; and in accidents,
which are to prove fatal, the younger person will die sooner than
the elder. But if the bone is laid bare of flesh, one must attend
and try to find out, what even is not obvious to the sight, and discover
whether the bone be broken and contused, or only contused; and if,
when there is an indentation in the bone, whether contusion, or fracture,
or both be joined to it; and if the bone has sustained any of these
injuries, we must give issue to the blood by perforating the bone
with a small trepan, observing the greatest precautions, for the bone
of young persons is thinner and more superficial than that of elder
persons.
Part 19
When a person has sustained a mortal wound on the head, which cannot
be cured, nor his life preserved, you may form an opinion of his approaching
dissolution, and foretell what is to happen from the following symptoms
which such a person experiences. When a bone is broken, or cleft,
or contused, or otherwise injured, and when by mistake it has not
been discovered, and neither the raspatory nor trepan has been applied
as required, but the case has been neglected as if the bone were sound,
fever will generally come on if in winter, and in summer the fever
usually seizes after seven days. And when this happens, the wound
loses its color, and the inflammation dies in it; and it becomes glutinous,
and appears like a pickle, being of a tawny and somewhat livid color;
and the bone then begins to sphacelate, and turns black where it was
white before, and at last becomes pale and blanched. But when suppuration
is fairly established in it, small blisters form on the tongue and
he dies delirious. And, for the most part,
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