WOU WOU WOUNDS. 



Ill 



Chaldee, but for his knowledge of geography, logic, 

 philosophy, and mathematics. In 1691, he was 

 made chaplain to the earl of Nottingham, who, in 

 1693, presented him to a rectory. The first fruit 

 of his extensive reading appeared in 1694, in his 

 Reflections upon Ancient and Modern Learning, 

 the plan of which was to institute a comparison be- 

 tween the ancients and moderns, in all that re- 

 garded arts, science, and literature. To a second 

 edition, in 1697, was annexed doctor Bentley's 

 Dissertation on Phalaris, which involved Wotton 

 in the controversy respecting the merits of the an- 

 cients and the moderns, and subjected him to the 

 satire of Swift, in the Battle of the Books. Em- 

 barrassed in circumstances, in consequence of some 

 irregularities, he was obliged, in 1714, to retire into 

 South Wales, where he employed himself in writing 

 on ecclesiastical antiquities and kindred subjects. 

 He also wrote various other pieces, but none which 

 made any addition to his fame : and he may be enu- 

 merated among the instances in which early profi- 

 ciency, resting principally on strength of memory, 

 disappoints expectation. He died in 1726, at the 

 age of sixty. 



WOU WOU. See Ape. 



WOUNDS are divided, by writers on surgery, 

 into several kinds, the distinctions being founded 

 either upon the soft of weapon with which the 

 injury has been inflicted, or upon the circum- 

 stance of a venomous matter having been introduced 

 into the part, or, lastly, upon the nature of the 

 wounded parts themselves, and the particular situa- 

 tion of the wound. Hence, we have cuts, incisions, 

 or incised wounds, which are produced by sharp- 

 edged instruments, and are generally free from all 

 contusion and laceration. The fibres and texture 

 of the wounded part have suffered no other injury 

 but their mere division ; and there is, consequently, 

 less tendency to inflammation, suppuration, gan- 

 grene, and other bad consequences, than in the ge- 

 nerality of other species of wounds. Incised wounds 

 also, may usually be healed with greater quickness 

 and facility than other wounds which are accompa- 

 nied with more or less of contusion and laceration : 

 the surgeon has only to bring the opposite sides of 

 the wound into contact with each other, and keep 

 them in this state a few hours,and they will unite and 

 grow together. Another class of wounds are stabs, 

 or punctured wounds, made by the thrusts of pointed 

 weapons, as bayonets, lances, swords, daggers, &c., 

 and also by the accidental and forcible introduction 

 of considerable thorns, nails, &c., into the flesh. 

 These wounds frequently penetrate to a great depth 

 so as to injure large blood-vessels, viscera, and other 

 organs of importance: and, as they are generally 

 inflicted with much force and violence, the parts 

 suffer more injury than what would result from 

 their simple division. It also deserves notice that 

 a great number of the weapons or instruments by 

 which punctured wounds are occasioned, increase 

 materially in diameter from the point towards their 

 other extremity ; and hence, when they penetrate 

 far, they must force the fibres asunder like a wedge, 

 and cause a serious degree of stretching and contu- 

 sion. It is on this account that bayonet wounds of the 

 very soft parts are ordinarily often followed by violent 

 inflammation, an alarming degree of tumefaction, 

 large abscesses, fever, delirium, and other very unfa- 

 vourable symptoms. The opening which the point 

 of such a weapon makes is quite inadequate to the 

 passage of the thicker part of it, which can only 

 enter by forcibly dilating, stretching, and otherwise 



injuring the fibres of the wounded flesh. A third 

 description of wounds are the contused and lacer- 

 ated, which strictly comprehend, together with a 

 variety of cases produced by the violent appli- 

 cation of hard, blunt, obtuse bodies to the soft 

 parts, all those interesting and common injuries de- 

 nominated gunshot wounds. Many bites rank also 

 as contused and lacerated wounds. In short, every 

 solution of continuity which is suddenly produced 

 in the soft parts by a blunt instrument or weapon 

 which has neither a sharp point nor edge, must be 

 a contused, lacerated wound. It has been remarked 

 that, in case of violent death by gunshot wounds, 

 the expression of the countenance is always that of 

 languor, whatever may be the natural energy of the 

 sufferer's character ; but in death from a stab, the 

 countenance preserves its traits of feeling or fero- 

 city and the mind its bias, to the last. See Sur- 

 gery. 



Poisoned wounds are those which are complicated 

 with the introduction of a venomous matter or 

 fluid into the part. Thus, the stings and bites of 

 a variety of insects afford us examples of poisoned 

 wounds ; and the surgeon, in the dissection of 

 putrid bodies, or in handling instruments infected 

 with any venomous matter, is exposed to the dan- 

 ger of poisoned wounds from cuts. The most dan- 

 gerous, however, of this class of wounds, occur 

 from the bites of the viper, the rattlesnake, &c. 

 (see Venomous Animals), or from those of rabid 

 animals. (See Hydrophobia.') Wounds may, like- 

 wise, be universally referred to two other general 

 classes, the simple and complicated. A wound is 

 called simple when it occurs in a healthy subject, 

 has been produced by a clean, sharp-edged instru- 

 ment, is unattended with any serious symptoms, 

 and the only indication is to reunite the fresh-cut 

 surfaces. A wound, on the contrary, is said to be 

 complicated whenever the state of the whole sys- 

 tem, or of the wounded part, or the wound it- 

 self, is such as to make it necessary for the surgeon 

 to deviate from the plan of treatment requisite for 

 a simple wound. The differences of complicated 

 wounds must, therefore, be very numerous, as they 

 depend upon many incidental circumstances, the 

 principal of which, however, are hemorrhage, ner- 

 vous symptoms, contusion, the unfavourable shape 

 of the injury, the discharge or extravasation of cer- 

 tain fluids, indicating the injury of particular bowels 

 or vessels, &c. All large or deep wounds are at- 

 tended with more or less of symtomatic fever, which 

 usually comes on at a period varying from sixteen 

 to thirty-six hours after the infliction of the injury, 

 and is generally of the inflammatory, but sometimes 

 of an asthenic character. It is of great consequence 

 to attend to the type of this fever in the treatment ; 

 for the loss of blood, which may be required and 

 sustained with impunity in the one species of fever, 

 may prove most injurious, if not fatal, in the other. 

 WOURALI POISON. Waterton, the eccen- 

 tric wanderer in South America, gives the following 

 interesting account of the method pursued by the In- 

 dians in making wourali poison, a species of matter of 

 the most powerful action on animal life, but which 

 destroys life so gently, that the victim appears to be 

 'n no pain whatever ; and probably, says he, were 

 the truth known, it feels none, saving the momen- 

 tary smart at the time the arrow enters. A day 

 or two before the Macoushi Indian prepares his 

 poison, he goes into the forest in quest of the ingre- 

 dients. A vine grows in these wilds which is railed 

 wourali, and it is from this that the poison takes 



