ertainly a surgical
compendium of no despicable comprehensiveness for a physician of his
age and country.

In the general treatment of wounds (f. 86 c) Gilbert tells us
the surgeon must consider the time, the age of the patient, his
temperament (_complexio_) and the locality, and be prepared to
temper the hot with the cold and the dry with the moist. Measures
for healing, cleansing and consolidation are required in all wounds,
and these objects may, not infrequently, be accomplished by a single
agent. The general dressing of most wounds is a piece of linen
moistened with the white of egg (_pecia panni in albumine ovi
infusa_), and, as a rule, the primary dressing should not be changed
for two days in summer, and for three days in the winter. In moist
wounds _vitreolum_ reduces the flesh; in dry wounds it repairs and
consolidates. _Flos aeris_, in dry wounds, reduces but does not
consolidate, but rather corrodes the tissues. Excessive suppuration
is sometimes the result of too stimulating applications, sometimes
of those which are too weak. In the former case the wound enlarges,
assumes a concave form, is red, hot, hard and painful, and the pus is
thin and watery (_subtilis_). If the application is too weak, the pus
is thick and viscous, and the other signs mentioned are wanting. In
either case the dressings are to be reversed. If any dyscrasia, such
as excessive heat, coldness, dryness or moisture appears in the wound
and delays its healing, it is to be met by its contrary. If fistula or
cancer develops, this complication is to be first cured and then the
primary wound. The signs of a hot dyscrasia are heat, burning and pain
in the wound; of a cold dyscrasia, lividity of the wound; the moist
dyscrasia occasions flabbiness (_mollicies_) and profuse suppuration,
and the dry produces dryness and induration.

Wounds of the head (f. 84 c) occur with or without fracture of the
cranium, but always require careful examination and exact diagnosis.
The wound is to be carefully explored with the finger, and, if
necessary, should be enlarged for this purpose. Large, but simple,
wounds of the scalp should be stitched with silk in three or four
places, leaving the most dependent angle open for escape of the
discharges, and in this opening should be inserted a tent (_tuellus_),
to facilitate drainage. The wound is then sprinkled with the _pulvis
rubeus_ and covered with a plantain or other leaf. On the ninth to the
eleventh day, if