Se6l. IXi 
BuRS^ MuCOSiE OF THE HuMAN BoOY. 
39 
SECT. IX. 
ft 
of the Cause of the dangerous Inflammation which ge- 
nerally follows the Wound of a shut Sac, and of the Man- 
ner of preventing it, . 
From coiilidering the much greater degree of inflammation, pain, and dan- 
ger, which attend compound than fimple fradure and luxation, and the fevc- 
ral fads above flated, with the danger which attends wounds penetrating into 
the cavities of the head, cheft, or belly, it has always appeared to me, that 
the bad fymptoms were much more owing to the admiTion of the air than to 
the mere divifion of the folid or membranous parts. And in this opinion I 
was much confirmed by a great number of experiments I made on living ani- 
mals at dilFerent times, and particularly in the year 1771 ; in which, with va- 
rious views, I laid open the cavities of the thorax and abdomen ; For in thefe 
I found that the danger was not proportioned to the fize of the wound inflidedj 
but to the time and manner in which the bowels were expofed to the air. I 
have therefore always inculcated in my ledures, but more efpecially fince that 
period, the advantages which would attend the exclufion of the air from the deep 
receffes of the body in performing different operations, and in treating wounds 
accidentally inflided* 
(A.) In the cafe, therefore, of cutting into the knee-joint for the purpofe 
of extrading fuch cartilaginous bodies as have been defcribed, I have always 
propofed an advice, which I would anxioufly recommend, by having heard of 
and witnefTed more than one inftance of bad effeds when it was not attended 
ed to, I mean the drawing up the fkin as much as poffible before the inci- 
fion is made, and, as foon as the cartilaginous body is extraded, covering the 
wound in the ligament^ by letting the lldn fall down to its natural place, and 
by 
