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Book VII
PROOEMIUM
[p. 469] the length of the vein, generally at intervals of four fingers' breadth, after which a dressing is put on to heal up the burns. But excision is done in the following way: the skin is similarly incised over the vein, and the margins held apart by hooks; with a scalpel the vein is separated from surrounding tissue, avoiding a cut into the vein itself; underneath the vein is passed a blunt hook; the same procedure is repeated at the intervals noted above throughout the course of the vein which is easily traced by pulling on the hook. When the same thing has been done wherever there are swellings, at one place the vein is drawn forward by the hook and cut away; then, where the next hook is, the vein is drawn forwards and again cut away. After the leg has thus been freed throughout from the swellings the margins of the incisions are brought together and an agglutinating plaster put on over them.
32 But if the fingers, either before birth or later on account of ulceration of their adjacent surfaces, adhere together, they are separated by the knife; after that each finger is separately enclosed in a plaster without grease, and so each heals separately. If after ulceration of a finger, a badly formed scar has made it crooked, in the first place a poultice is tried, and if this is of no avail, which is generally the case with old scars and tendon injuries, we must see whether the trouble is in the tendon, or in the skin only. If it is in the tendon, it should not be touched, for the condition is incurable; if in the skin, the whole scar should be cut out, which had generally become hard and so did not allow the finger to be extended. When it had been thus straightened a new scar must be allowed to form there.
33 When gangrene has developed between the nails and in the armpits or groins, and if medicaments have failed to cure it, the limb, as I have stated elsewhere, must be amputated. But even that involves very great risk; for patients often die under the operation, either from loss of blood or syncope. It does not matter, however, whether the remedy is safe enough, since it is the only
