126 WOUND TREATMENT 



still others maintain that wounds occur only upon the 

 surface. There are no good reasons for these restric- 

 tions, because thermic and chemic influences produce 

 interruption of tissues which are not unlike and are not 

 distinguished from wounds mechanically inflicted ; again, 

 a fracture is a break in the continuity of osseous tissue 

 and is repaired in exactly the same way as is a wound 

 in soft tissue; and further, a rupture, as of the liver or 

 spleen, is characterized by tissue destruction and inter- 

 ruption of the continuity of the integral parts of the 

 injured organ, all of which are conditions not easily dif- 

 ferentiated pathologically from wounds. Usually the 

 term ''wound" is restricted to those injuries that are 

 produced by sudden violent action; thus ulcers and ne- 

 crotic tubercular centers are not wounds. A bruise may 

 or may not be a wound, depending upon the nature of 

 the lesion ; that is, whether or not an interruption of the 

 tissue has been effected. 



There are a variety of ways of classifying wounds, of 

 which the following will serve for discussion: Etiolog- 

 ically, wounds may be traumatic, chemic, or thermic; 

 topographically, wounds may be surface or subsurface, 

 and again they may be facial, cervical, thoracic, abdom- 

 inal, and so on. According to character, wounds may 

 be incised, punctured, lacerated, contused, as produced 

 by a stab, shot, or bullet, or a bite. As to condition, 

 wounds may be infected or non-infected. 



How Wound Healing Is Accomplished 



Wound healing is the simultaneous regeneration of the 

 tissue of an area in which there has been previous destruc- 

 tion. Traumatic wounds usually heal more readily than 

 wounds resulting from thermic or chemic causes, be- 

 cause traumatisms are the result of mechanical force 



