TREATMENT OF WOUNDS 95 



fully understand the necessity for proper asep- 

 tic treatment." 



SUGGESTIONS TO THE PRUNER 



If the reader has grasped the principles involved 

 in this discussion of the healing process, he will 

 be able to arrive at many sound conclusions 

 respecting the rational making and treatment of 

 wounds. He will also see how futile it is to 

 attempt to construct any theory of the manage- 

 ment of wounds from a few isolated experiments; 

 for the interpreted results of such experiments 

 often contradict fundamental principles, and there- 

 fore cannot be true, however clear and unequivo- 

 cal they may appear to be. 



First of all, the primer wants to know how and 

 when he shall cut the limbs so that they will heal 

 as quickly as possible. Let us think about the 

 matter, and see. 



A twig of a peach tree was cut back in the fall. 

 By spring it had died back an inch, as shown in 

 Fig. 82. This stump cannot heal over of itself. 

 If it is ever inclosed, it must be buried by the 

 growth of a branch which shall spring from a 

 side bud. There is such a bud on the twig, and 

 if a branch arises from it, the stump may be 

 overtopped in the course of a few years; but the 

 probability is that this bud will not grow, because 

 the drying out of the twig has injured it. The 

 responsibility must fall, therefore, on a lower bud. 



