INDEX OF CICATRIZATION 



83 



of all known errors, a more or less important discrepancy is 

 observed between this index and that of the wound itself 

 calculated by means of formula (3) it will be the indication 

 that the patient is not normal. There is an unknown retarding 

 cause which it may be interesting to investigate. And if tliere 



Pdlieat NM88.>\^e: 31 .1 = 0.03 

 A B 



FIG. 18. (a) aspect of the WOUND ON MAY 20TH. ONLY THE SHADED 



PARTS ARE CICATRIZED. AREA IS EQUAL TO 34.5 SQ. CM. (b) ASPECT 



OF THE WOUND ON MAY 24TH. IN FOUR DAYS IT HAS CICATRIZED ITS 



NARROW PARTS. AREA EQUALS 24.8 SQ. CM. 



is every reason to admit that the man is in good health it will 

 be the proof that his real physiological age is not the same as his 

 legale official age. In other words, from then on, there was a 

 way of determining the difference between these two ages 

 expressed by the reparation activity of tissues. Later on I 

 will deal with this point more thoroughly. In connexion 

 with this subject, however, I would like to mention the first 

 calculated determination of the age of a man. The great and 

 regretted surgeon. Dr. Tuffier, had put an engineer. Dr. 

 Desmarres, in charge of the calculations relative to wounds. 

 One day, in Compiegne, I received a letter containing an 

 experimental curve of cicatrization and asking for an explana- 

 tion. The curve calculated by means of the first formula had 

 given a time of cicatrization materially longer than that 

 actually observed. 



I had studied only a few days before long and narrow 

 wounds which, as we have already seen, cicatrize more rapidly 



