INJURIES. 



quential, and therefore arifing without any breach of the peace. 

 As to injuries that regard things in aalon only, they pertain to 

 fuch rights as are founded on, and arife from contraAs, 

 which may be eitlier exprefs or implbd. The former are 

 dells, coiK'iiants, and promifis ; fee each term: the latter are 

 fuch as reafon and juftice dictate, and which the law pre- 

 fumcs that every man has contracted to perform. Tlius 

 it is that every pcrfon is bound, and hath virtually agreed 

 to pay fuch particular funis of money as are charged upon 

 him by the fentence, or atreffed by the interpretation of 

 the law. A debt is thus contrafted, and the defendant is 

 bound to pay it. The fame reafoning will apply to all 

 penal ftatutes, that is, fucli ads of parliament by which a 

 forfeiture is inflifted for tranfgrefling tlie provifions therein 

 enadled. The party otfcndiiig mull pay the forfeiture in- 

 curred to fuch perfons as the law requires. Another clafs 

 of contrads includes thofe which arife from natural reafon, 

 or the juft conftruftion of law. (See Assumpsit.) The 

 laft clafs of contrafts, implied by reafon and conllruftion 

 of law, arifes upon this fuppofition, that every one who 

 undertakes any office or employment, trull or duty, contracts 

 with thofe who employ or truft: him, to perform it with 

 integrity, diligence, and llvill ; and if for want of thefe 

 qualities any injury accrues to individuals, they have their 

 remedy in damages by a fpccial -aftion on the cafe. 



Befides the fpccial aftion on tlie cafe, there is alfo a pe- 

 culiar remedy, entitled an aftion of deceit, (F. N. B. 95.) 

 to give damages in fome particular cafes of fraud, and 

 principally where one man does any thing in the name of 

 another, by which he is deceived or injured. 



As to thofe injuries that affeft men with regard to their rela- 

 tive rights, they may be done to perfons under the four follow- 

 ing relations: hulhand and wife, parent and child, guardian and 

 ward, mailer and fervant ; and they comprehend in the re- 

 lation of a hufband, alduBion, adultery, and beating or other- 

 wife abufing the wife. In the relation of a parent, the in- 

 jury is abdu^ion, which is remedied by a writ of ravi/hment, 

 or aftion of trefpafs vi et armis, dejilio vel^lia, rapto -vel ab- 

 du£}o. (F. N. B. 90.) See the other terms above fpecified. 



Having briefly recited tiie principal injuries that may be 

 offered to /jr/oW property, with their feveral remedies' by 

 fuit or aftion, we (hall next direct our attention to thofe in- 

 juries which affeft that fpecies of property which the laws of 

 England have denominated real. Re<al injuries, or injuries 

 affefting real rights, are principally the following fix ; oujler, 

 trefpafs, mtfance, nvafle, fnbtraaian, and di/lurbanee ; which fee 

 relpedlively. Blackil. Com. b. iii. 



INJURIES of the Head. Some fubjecis, conneaed with 

 this highly intereiling part o{ forgery, have already been 

 treated of in the preceding volumes of this Cyclopxdia. 

 See COiMPRESsiox ; Con'cussion ; and Extkavasation. 

 Here it is incumbent upon us to confider certain other cafes, 

 which are the confequence of external violence applied to the 

 head, as wounds and contufions of the fcalp j inflammation 

 of the dura mater, and fuppuration under the cranium ; 

 fraftures of the fl<ull, &c. 



Injuries of the Scalp — Injuries done to the fcalp by exter- 

 nal violence are generally of a more ferious nature than a 

 fimikr degree of mifchief done to any other part of the 

 common integuments. Surgical authors have endeavoured 

 to account for this faft by advernng to the prodigious quan- 

 tity of nervous iiiaments diilrlbuted to the fcalp, the many 

 different parts which compjfc it, its llrudlure, conneflions, 

 ice. We are not, however, to fuppofe every injury of the 

 external coverings of the head dangerous. A mere cut with 

 a (harp inftrument ufnally heals as favourably in this fitua- 

 tion as in any other, and often more fo, perhaps^ in confe- 



quence of the great vafculan'ty of the (Icin of the head, md 

 the very fteady manner in which the edges of the wound ad- 

 mit of being kept in contaft, fupported as they are upoa 

 the fixed furface of the cranium. But punftures, lacerated 

 wounds, and contufions of the fcalp, as every experienced 

 furgeon well knows, are cafes frequently followed by fuch 

 fymptoms as may terminate fatally. 



We fliall pafs over incifed wounds of the fcalp, fince they 

 are attended with no peculiarity, and only require the fame 

 treatment as ordinary cuts upon any part of the furface of 

 the body. 



Lacerated wounds of the fcalp are divided by Mr. Pott 

 into two kinds ; vi-z. thofe m which the fcalp, though torn, 

 or unequally divided, ftill keeps its natural fituation, and is 

 not ftripped nor feparated from the cranium to any confider- 

 able diftance beyond the breadth of the wound ; and thofe, 

 in which it is confiderably detached from the parts it ought 

 to cover. 



The firft of thefe, if fimple, and not combined with the 

 fymptoms, or appearances of any other mifchief, do not re- 

 quire any particular or different treatment from what the 

 fame kind of wounds require on all other parts ; but the 

 latter, or thofe in which the fcalp is feparated and detached 

 from the parts it ought to cover, are not only, by the dif- 

 ferent methods in which they may be treated, frequently 

 capable of being cured with a confiderable deal more or lefs 

 eale and expedition, but are alfo fometimes a matter of great 

 confequence to the health and well-being of the patient. 



Not many years ago furgeons were accuftomed to treat 

 this laft fort of cafe in a moll objetlionnble way. Too 

 •haftily convinced of the impoffibihty of the feparated and 

 torn pieces of the fcalp ever becoming united again, practi- 

 tioners ufed, without hefitation, to cut tiiem away, fo as to. 

 occafion a large fore, requiring a long time to heal, and 

 leaving confiderable deformity. Far different is the prac- 

 tice of the moll approved modern furgeons, with whom it is 

 an invariable maxun, that the prefervation of the fcalp ought 

 always to be attempted. Tlie reafons for this line of con. 

 duct are plain and obvious. The detached portions of the 

 fcalp were formerly cut off, becaufe it was fuppofed that 

 they were in fuch a Hate as precluded all chance of their 

 union. But the fa£t is, it can never be forefeen with cer- 

 tainty whether the detached torn edges of a lacerated wound 

 will (lough or not. Now, as no harm can arife from trying 

 wliether they will live and unite ; as confiderable benefit will 

 rcfult from the fuccefs of fuch an attempt ; and, as the ex- 

 cifion of the part is painful, and productive of no folid ad- 

 vantage, even when floughing is unavoidable, the method is 

 fupported neither by reafon nor experience. Whatever may- 

 be the courfe of the cafe, the proceeding is only calculated 

 to caufe unneceffary pain, lengthen the time required for 

 the cure, and render deformity, which is uncertain, quite- 

 inevitable. The head having been fliaven round the wound], 

 the torn piece of the fcalp is to be firft freed from all dirt 

 and extraneous fubilances, and then rellored as quickly and 

 as perfeaiy as p.-ffible to its natural fituation. Strips of ad- 

 helive plaller fully fuflice for bringing the parts together 

 without the afiillance of futures, which, unlefs abfolutely 

 neceffary, ought never to be ufed. It has always appeared 

 to us a very beneficial plan to maintain the pieces of the 

 fcalp clofely applieJ to the cranium by means of fmall Hnt- 

 comprelfes, bound on vwlh adht live plaller. Thus, no cavity 

 will be left for the lodgment of matter, and the parts will 

 have tiie fairell opportunity of uniting. Sometimes the 

 loofencd fcalp wi 1 unite v\ith the parts from wliich it was. 

 torn and feparated, and there will be m other fore than 



what 



