WOUNDS FROM PRICKING OBJECTS. 133 
of those organs. Penetrating wounds of tendinous sheaths, of articular 
synovial sacs, or of splanchnic cavities, are, ordinarily, accompanied 
with diffused inflammation of those membranes. Complications of 
tetanus and of septicemia are likely to be fatal where the agents of 
these serious infections are deposited in the punctures (wounds with 
stable forks, with the tooth of a harrow, or with anail), 
Wounds from prickings when free from infection heal rapidly. 
Immediately after the extraction of the wounding object, the sepa- 
rated tissues return close to each other. The narrow solution of con- 
tinuity is soon filled with plastic lymph, with leucocytes, and with pro- 
liferating elements, and cicatrization is a matter of a few days. All 
that is required is to assist the repairing process. Clip the hairs all 
round the prick, disinfect the tegument and the edges of the wound, 
‘close it with iodoform collodion ; such are the rules to be observed. The 
same treatment should be used for pricks made with points of larger 
dimensions, which contuse and bruise a thin layer of the tissues pierced, 
but do not carry with them infectious elements. Rapid occlusion is 
especially important with penetrating wounds which open an articular 
serous membrane, the pleura, or the peritoneum. The old treatment, 
which consisted in finding out, by probing, the depth and direction of 
those wounds, to enlarge them or enlarge their sides, is now condemned. 
To wait for developments is the rule, even when the wounding object 
has been broken and has left its point in the tissues: if it is aseptic, 
only a light reaction will follow, and it will become encysted. Exam- 
ples are common of pricks, which look serious at first, but heal with- 
out complications. The same is true of the numerous penetrating 
wounds of a horse’s foot, although made by soiled substances, which, 
however, in piercing the hoof, have been relieved of the impurities de- 
posited on their surface. 
Infected punctures are not slow to give rise to acute pains accom- 
panied with great tumefaction of the wounded region. These manifes- 
tations are treated with antiphlogistics, continued irrigations, especially 
with antiseptic baths or nebulizations. If the lesion is on the extremity 
of a leg, one will have recourse to repeated immersions in a carbolic 
acid, a cresyl or a luke-warm corrosive sublimate solution. Some- 
times the inflammatory manifestations subside, at others they remain 
or increase, pain becomes excessive, and tumefaction diffuse; then, 
most commonly, either pus collects at the bottom of the wound, or the 
inflamed tissues are compressed by an aponeurosis, or an irritating 
foreign body remains there implanted. At this point one should inter- 
fere at once. Without loss of time the first puncture should be freely 
enlarged, in order to allow the pus to escape, if there is any, the 
phlogosed tissues should be relieved, and the irrigations or the antisep- 
tic baths should be continued. The enlarging of the wound assists the 
