_Of incised wounds, or cuts._ The prognosis of wounds made with a cutting instrument varies, _cæteris paribus_, according to the extent and depth of the division, the nature of the injured parts, and the circumstances which attend the operation; where the instrument has been so sharp as not to occasion any contusion or laceration, the fibres and texture of the wounded part will have suffered no other injury but their mere division; and there is consequently less tendency to inflammation, suppuration, gangrene, and other bad consequences; if the wound be large and deep it will be more dangerous, as well as more difficult to heal, than one which only affects the skin. Wounds, accompanied with injury of considerable vessels or nerves, are more or less hazardous, according to the magnitude or number of those vessels or nerves; generally speaking, the most dangerous examples of incised wounds are those which are made about the throat; here there are so many large blood-vessels, nerves and other parts of great importance, that deep incised wounds often prove fatal, either immediately, or in a few days; in some cases of suicide the carotid artery is opened, and the person perishes from hemorrhage on the spot, before any assistance can be afforded; in other instances he divides some of the principal branches of the external carotid, and after losing a great deal of blood, he faints, and the hemorrhage being thus checked, the life of the patient is preserved, until surgical assistance can be procured. Cut wounds of the extremities, when such arteries as the femoral and brachial are injured, may also suddenly destroy the patient, by hemorrhage.