contact with a wounded surface free from
the germs of inflammation. In brief, such injuries must be kept
_scrupulously neat_ and _surgically clean_.

[Illustration: Fig. 156.--Dotted Line showing the Course of the Brachial
Artery.]

The injured parts should be kept at rest. Movement and disturbance hinder
the healing process.

362. Bites of Mad Dogs. Remove the clothing at once, if only from the
bitten part, and apply a temporary ligature _above_ the wound. This
interrupts the activity of the circulation of the part, and to that
extent delays the absorption of the poisonous saliva by the blood-vessels
of the wound. A dog bite is really a lacerated and contused wound, and
lying in the little roughnesses, and between the shreds, is the poisonous
saliva. If by any means these projections and depressions affording the
lodgment can be removed, the poison cannot do much harm. If done with a
knife, the wound would be converted, practically, into an incised wound,
and would require treatment for such.

If a surgeon is at hand he would probably cut out the injured portion, or
cauterize it thoroughly. Professional aid is not always at our command,
and in such a case it would be well to take a poker, or other suitable
piece of iron, heat it _red_ hot in the fire, wipe off and destroy the
entire surface of the wound. As fast as destroyed, the tissue becomes
white. An iron, even at a white heat, gives less pain and at once destroys
the vitality of the part with which it comes in contact.

If the wound is at once well wiped out, and a stick of solid nitrate of
silver (lunar caustic) rapidly applied to the entire surface of the wound,
little danger is to be apprehended. Poultices and warm fomentations should
be applied to the injury to hasten the sloughing away of the part whose
vitality has been intentionally destroyed.

Any dog, after having bitten a person, is apt, under a mistaken belief, to
be at once killed. This should not be done. There is no more danger from a
dog-bite, unless the dog is suffering from the disease called _rabies_ or
is "mad," than from any other lacerated wound. The suspected animal should
be at once placed in confinement and watched, under proper safeguards, for
the appearance of any symptoms that indicate rabies.

Should no pronounced symptoms indicate this disease in the dog, a great
deal of unnecessary mental distress and worry can be saved both on the
part of the person bitten and his friends.