PREVENTION AND FIRST AID TREATMENT OF DISEASE. 325 



Wounds made by firearms vary according to the missile which inflicts 

 them. A piece of shell makes a jagged hole, which is both bruised and 

 torn, whilst a small bore bullet will either puncture a little hole in the 

 muscles and soft bones, or may make a large smashing injury if it 

 encounters the resistance of a hard, solid bone. 



The healing of wounds takes place in slightly different ways according The 

 to the class to which they belong, but in the main the process is similar healing 

 in all. With clean cut wounds there may, provided they are absolutely of wounds, 

 clean, be a direct joining of the severed surfaces, and the wound will 

 then heal in a very few days, but, generally speaking, this is a result 

 seldom obtainable in animals, because of the conditions under which 

 their wounds are usually received. When, as in torn and bruised wounds, 

 there is a certain amount of dead and dying skin or flesh around the 

 wound, this comes away with the discharge from the surface before healing 

 takes place, and in bruised wounds especially the amount which does so 

 is sometimes considerable. From the sides and bottom of the wound 

 there then grows a bright pink mass of granulations, which on reaching 

 the level of the skin, hardens on the surface and forms a scar. 



A scar is not skin but a good substitute for it ; it is, however, more 

 likely to be chafed or rubbed than skin, as it is neither so elastic nor 

 strong. 



Wounds of the surface of the skin only — grazes, for instance— generally 

 heal under a scab, which is formed by the clotting of the slight quantity 

 of bloody fluid which oozes from them, and under this dry cap the granula- 

 tions grow till, when they are level, they push the scab off. 



A perfectly healthy healing wound should be a bright pink, the 

 surrounding edge whitish and without any matter discharging from it. 



Discharges from wounds are caused either by dead or dying material 

 which is in the wound, or by the growth of germs, and it must be 

 distinctly understood that no such thing as what is popularly called a 

 "healthy" discharge exists. All are harmful and should be got rid of by 

 treatment as soon as possible. 



Treatment of wounds. — The great principle in the successful treat- Treat- 

 ment of wounds may be summed up in the word " cleanliness." ment of 

 Cleanliness of the wound itself, of the dressings and the dresser are of ^'^'""^"^ 

 the greatest importance, and although wounds will often heal in spite of 

 dirt and bad treatment, they do so much quicker, better and more 

 certainly when these points are strictly observed. Let it be understood 

 a wound is not " healed " by any treatment ; the treatment should keep it 

 thoroughly clean and Nature repairs it. The danger of much so-called 

 treatment must here be called attention to, the application of dirty dress- 



