TREATMENT OF WOUNDS 



By L. A. MERILLAT 



The treatment of wounds! What a vast subject I 

 When the surgeon makes a wound, or meets one acci- 

 dentallv inflicted, he is immediately confronted with 

 the important task of guiding the reparative process 

 through and to the successful issue that will not only 

 protect the patient against serious complications, but 

 which will also leave the once injured body in the best 

 possible condition : sound, healthy, and unblemished. The 

 word •'guiding'' is used advisedly, because the first rule 

 to lay down in the management of wounds is that wound 

 healing is a process of nature that can be guided — 

 influenced, but not forced. The surgeon does not heal 

 a wound; he merely puts it and keeps it in a favorable 

 condition to heal. The inherent, mysterious, subtle, 

 cellular activity that begins as soon as a wound is in- 

 flicted and ends in strict obedience to an inexplicable 

 law as soon as the breach is filled up with just enough 

 new tissue to level off the excavation, is indeed a process 

 to be guided rather than forced by any outer inter- 

 ference. 



The student of wound healing who first of all learns 

 the wisdom of non-interference with this process has 

 already laid down a good foundation for wound treat- 

 ment. In other words, he who bases his management 

 of wounds upon the fact that the new tissue that 

 sprouts out from the walls of a traimiatic cavity under 

 normal conditions grows safely to a useful, mature 

 tissue without outside help, is the successful healer, 



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