80 CICATRIZATION OF WOUNDS 



health of the patient, of the extent of his physical resistance, 

 of his antecedents, there would have been an index for each 

 person and for each wound. This would have eliminated all 

 possibihty of connecting this constant to measurable physio- 

 logical factors, and would, in consequence, have materially 

 reduced its importance. No scientific laws would exist if 

 there were only particular cases. On the other hand, it 

 seemed rather strange that the general condition of the patient 

 did not influence the activity of reparation. 



A close examination of the wounded cared for at the 

 hospital clearly demonstrated that outside of certain specific 

 cases, such as diabetes, syphilis (in periods of accidents), and 

 inveterate alcoholism, the activity of reparation expressed by 

 the index appeared to be solely determined by the age of the 

 patient and the area of the wound. At any rate, the fluctua- 

 tions due to other factors were negligible in the experimental 

 conditions in which we placed ourselves. They were of an 

 order of magnitude inferior to the tolerable experimental 

 errors. 



This unlooked-for result was partly due to the fact that all 

 our patients with few exceptions were soldiers, that is to say, 

 healthy men in the prime of age, between twenty and forty 

 years old. What is more, in spite of the hardships, the Hfe 

 they led was healthy when compared to the stagnant Hfe 

 in towns with all its excesses. The majority were robust 

 peasants, accustomed to Uve out of doors. The others, 

 nervous and morally tired city men, had generally become 

 stouter and gained in health. We were therefore dealing with 

 a selection. But this selection gave us precisely what would 

 have been very difficult to find in peace-time, namely nor- 

 mality. However, I may say that I had several occasions of 

 studying all sorts of different wounds after the end of the war, 

 such as eschars, wounds which do not heal normally, varicose 

 ulcers, burns, etc., on men unfit for military service. The 

 discrepancies observed between the 'normal' index and the 

 calculated index were much less frequent than I had supposed. 



Sufficient elements were on hand to make it possible to 



