CICATRIZATION OF WOUNDS 



69 



and the surfaces vertically as ordinates. To every day 

 corresponded a given area. If the measurements were made 

 every four days, a curve similar to that of Fig. 13, which 

 represents the evolution of the wounds of Fig. 12, was obtained. 

 Once in possession of a certain number of similar curves, 

 I could begin to work, rocked day and night by the unceasing 



FIG. 13. NORMAL HEALING OF A WOUND. THE DISCREPANCIES BETWEEN 

 THE TWO CURVES OBSERVED (sOLID CURVE) AND CALCULATED (DOTTED 

 curve) ARE SMALL. THE MAXIMUM DIFFERENCE AMOUNTS TO 0'6 SQ. CM. 



ON THE 29TH OF JANUARY 



bombardment which formed a sonorous background to all our 

 thoughts and all our actions. I intended to begin by attacking 

 the surface and then the length of the epithelial edge. The 

 first idea was to express the quantity cicatrized in one day as 

 a function of the dimension of the wound. For if I expressed 

 in square centimetres the area cicatrized in a time r, I failed 

 to take into account the fact that a large wound can, in an 

 equal time, cicatrize a surface which is larger in absolute 

 values, but which may be smaller in relative value, namely, 

 with respect to its total area. 



