TREATMENT OF WOUNDS 27 



checking of fresh-cut wood. The wisest thing to 

 do is not to try to put on a permanent dressing 

 until the first checking has taken place. A heavy 

 dressing will then retard further checking and may 

 not be fractured by such checking as does occur. 



The various materials which have some value 

 as applications to wounds can be divided into two 

 groups : those which sterilize the wound and cause 

 the death, through their fungicidal properties, of 

 such spores as fall on the wound while the ma- 

 terials persist, and those materials which fill and 

 cover the wood, permanently preventing the access 

 of spores to it. Some of these last have inci- 

 dental antiseptic qualities. 



To the former class belong all sprays used 

 against fungous diseases, such as solutions of 

 copper sulphate and the lime-sulphur wash. 

 Whenever trees are sprayed with a fungicide the 

 nozzle should be held for an instant against each 

 wound, and the trunk should be sprayed as care- 

 fully as the bearing wood. The copper solution 

 is made by dissolving an ounce of copper sulphate 

 in a gallon of water. Other antiseptics of value 

 in dressing wounds are corrosive sublimate, dis- 

 solved in water at the rate of two ounces to fifteen 

 gallons, and formalin, one ounce to two gallons. 



The antiseptic materials used in wood preser- 

 vation are also of value in treating wounds. 

 Foremost among them are coal tar creosote and 



