Wounds 159 
they may be caused by violent internal muscular ex- 
ertion. They are classified according to their nature. 
Clean-cut, or incised wounds, are such as would be 
made with a knife. Other things being equal, incised 
wounds are the easiest to treat. Lacerated, or torn, 
wounds are usually made by barbed wire. Contused 
wounds are those in which the parts are bruised, 
aus well as cut. These wounds are serious, for if the 
tissues are badly bruised there may be considerable 
sloughing of the injured parts, leaving a large sore. 
Punetured wounds are made by more or less pointed 
bodies penetrating the flesh. Considering their size, 
punetured wounds are the most serious. They are 
likely to be deep, and to injure vital parts, or the 
foreign body that caused the wound is lable to break 
off and a part of it to be left in the tissues. It is 
difficult to reach the deeper parts of punctured wounds 
to clear them of foreign substances and to treat them 
satisfactorily. Gunshot and poisoned wounds are some- 
times classified with punctured wounds, but they are so 
rare that they do not need special consideration here. 
Treatment of Wounds 
The first step in the treatment of wounds is to stop 
hemorrhage, or excessive flow of blood. While a hemor- 
rhage is seldom dangerous unless a large artery or vein 
is cut, yet it is best to stop it at once. Bleeding from 
an artery is more serious than from a vein. Arteries 
carry blood from the heart to the different parts of the 
body, while veins gather the blood and earry it back to 
