[ 164 ] 
mater rofe to its natural height, the difeafed parts floughed 
off, it gradually aflumed its natural colour, and he reco- 
vered. 
Tue next fpecies of injury that requires trepanning is, de- 
pofits of matter on the membranes of the brain, or on its 
furface. On this very obfcure and truly lamentable malady, 
my efteemed friend, Mr. Deafe, of the Royal College of Sur- 
geons, has thrown much light, in a late ingenious treatife *. 
It is beyond doubt a complaint of a moft ferious and alarm- 
ing nature. In the courfe of many years practice, and. painful 
obfervations, I cannot give myfelf credit for a fingle cure I 
ever performed in this way, when the fymptoms of depofite 
were formed; and whether the patient was or was not trepan- 
ned, the fcene clofed with death! However, this ill fuccefs I 
complain of fhould not deter others ; for in this cafe the opera-- 
tion is indifpenfible ; inftances of recovery from it can be ad- 
duced; and when a practitioner makes a fair prognoftic he 
cannot be cenfured. 
Tus complaint is moftly confined to wounds of the {fcalp 
and pericranium, but particularly of the latter. The fymp- 
toms of matter forming under the cranium commence gene- 
rally about the eighth day, fometimes later, but feldom ex- 
ceed the fifteenth: thefe are, ficknefs at ftomach, head-ach, a 
fmart fever, and ftrong fhaking fit; the wound aflumes a paler 
colour, the difcharge is thin and pale, and the pericranium 
becomes more and more detached from the fkull. Thefe are 
the 
* Obferyations on Wounds of the Head. 
