84 CICATRIZATION OF WOUNDS 



than others, by reason of the proximity of the epitheUal 

 borders. I immediately concluded that the wound in question 

 was of this shape, and although I had not seen the drawings 

 I introduced the new correction (of which I shall speak 

 presently) and obtained a good accord. Having satisfied 

 myself that an elongated shape was probably the cause of the 

 acceleration, I consulted the chart and saw that the index 

 corresponded to about twenty years of age. Dr. Tuffier had 

 not as yet heard of the results obtained on the subject of age. 

 I therefore rephed by telling him that his patient, assuming 

 that he was in good general health, must be between twenty 

 and twenty-two years old, and that his wound was long and 

 narrow. Very much surprised, Tuffier answered by a letter 

 in which he confirmed the exactitude of the calculation. The 

 wounded man in question was a young soldier called Jacque- 

 maire, twenty-one years old and Clemenceau's grandson. 



It was therefore possible by this method to determine the 

 age of a wounded man with a good approximation. 



These experiments, first performed on men, were taken up 

 again on animals and gave similar results. When, owing to 

 the fact that we had no facilities for breeding, it was impossible 

 to be certain of the age of the animals, the latter was replaced 

 by the weight, which in young animals is very nearly pro- 

 portional to age. On guinea-pigs, for example, we obtained 

 for wounds of the same order of magnitude (i to 1-5 cm.-) 

 the following values (the guinea-pig weighing 250 gr. was only 

 a few weeks old). 



The part played by the size of the wound is most interesting. 

 Wounds which are too large in comparison to the total surface 

 of the body of a man or an animal, do not cicatrize. Every- 

 thing occurs as if nature had not anticipated the reparation of 



