Of Medicine, in Eight BooksCelsus, Aulus Cornelius
History
Of Medicine, in Eight Books
Celsus, Aulus Cornelius
Medicine, Greek and Roman
These then are the remedies against a haemorrhage: but for an
inflammation the flux of blood itself is the cure. This may be
apprehended, when either a bone has been hurt, or a nerve, or a
cartilage, or a muscle, or when the haemorrhage has been too small in
proportion to the size of the wound. Therefore when any thing of this
kind happens, it will not be proper to stop the blood quickly, but to
suffer it to flow as long as it is safe; insomuch that if the discharge
has appeared small, it ought also to be taken from the arm; especially
if the patient be young and robust, and used to exercise; much more,
if he was intoxicated before he received the wound. And if a muscle
shall appear to be wounded, it must be cut through: for when it is only
divided in part, it is mortal; cut quite through it admits of a cure.
[Sidenote: _The agglutination of wounds._]
The blood then being either stopped, when the haemorrhage is excessive,
or _more_ taken away _by phlebotomy_ when too small, it is far the best
method to agglutinate the wound. Now this may be done, either when it
is in the skin, or even in the flesh, if nothing else is hurt. It may
be done, where the flesh is hanging down in one part, and adhering
in another; provided however it be still sound, and nourished by its
continuity with the body.
In wounds to be agglutinated there is a double method of cure. For if
the wound be in a soft place, it ought to be sewed: and especially, if
the extremity of the ear, or the lower part of the nose be cut, or the
forehead, or the cheek, or the eye-brow, or the lip, or the skin about
the throat, or the belly. But if the wound is in the flesh, and gapes,
and its lips cannot be easily brought together, a suture is improper:
and in this case fibulæ(64) are to be put on (the Greeks call them
ancteres[ER]) to draw the lips a little closer; that the cicatrix may
be the less broad after the cure.
[ER] ἀγκτη̃ρες.
Hence now it may be collected, whether a wound, in which the flesh
is in one part depending, and in another adhering, if it is not yet
corrupted, requires a suture, or a fibula. But neither of them ought
to be applied before the wound be cleansed within, lest any concreted
blood be left there. For that turns to pus, raises an inflammation, and
prevents the wound from being agglutinated. Even the lint, that is put
into it to stop the bleeding, must not be left there; for that also
inflames.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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