Chirurgorum comes, or, The whole practice of chirurgery begun by the learned Dr. Read ; continued and completed by a Member of the College of physicians in London.

SECT. VIII.

On what days the secret Malignity of Mortal Wounds uses to shew it self?

THat nothing may be wanting about this Affair, it will be∣hove you to observe some term of days within which some latent mis∣chief from a Wound, if it have lain lurking a few days, must shew it self. If Mortal Signs do long postpone; you cannot then of right blame the Wound; but something else. Guido, a man of great experience, in his general Speculation of Wounds sets three terms, wherein Mortal Signs show themselves; the Seventh, Ninth and Fortieth. Tagaultius in this, as in all things else, follows him; only instead of the ninth day he puts the fourteenth. Some of the most skilful among the Moderns for the first days of the Wound suspend their Judgments; nor do they give their opinion of the quality of the Wound before the ninth day is over: for they say, within that time gentle or horrid Symptoms usually shew them∣selves, according to the conditi∣on of the Wound, the party hurt, and the ambient Air. Nor with∣out reason: for the ninth day, as Plutarch testifies, is judicatory of Diseases; and he says, that Achilles knew, the Pestilence in the Army had no vulgar cause, because it exceeded the ninth day. But thô I deny not these things to be true; yet they create not Science. Therefore the best way is to pitch

upon some Method at the pre∣sent, whereby a Chirurgeon may make perpetually a pretty sure conjecture concerning Wounds. Hippocrates, lib. de vulner. Capi∣tis, affirms, if a man have broke his Skull, and commit an error, if it be neither raspt nor perfo∣rated, a Fever seizes him before the fourteenth day in Winter; but about the seventh in Summer; and if all things persevere bad, in Summer he will die before the seventh, and in Winter before the fourteenth day. From which passage, I think, I shall be able to gather the true way of judging: For he says, that bad Symptoms begin and death happens later in Winter and sooner in Summer. And as this is most certainly true, I am able to give no other reason for it, than that in Winter our heat is more vivacious and strong; and therefore resists nocent causes the more; for the Ventricles are by nature hottest in Winter. On the contrary, since our strength is easily spent by the ambient heat, it so happens, that then we are most liable to morbid injuries. For the same reason, if things hap∣pen otherwise than well, I say, that mortal Symptoms are longer in appearing in a strong Patient ••han in a weak one: for as strength retards the approach of death, so does it of grievous Symptoms. How∣ever therefore as by Age, Complexi∣on, Sex and Time of the year the Strength is firmer, the longer will the Symptoms and Death be in ap∣proaching. So if a young Man of a good constitution, and in perfect health receive a Wound in Winter, whose event may prove hazardous, I would wait for the be∣ginning of the Symptoms on the fourteenth day before I would give my judgment; which if they per∣severe, I would predict death, on the next critical day, or on some other, according as the malady proceeded flower or sharper. On the contrary, if an old Woman be wounded, who is of a cold and dry complexion, and of a bad habit of Body; I guess the Symptoms in reference to the Wound would arise about the seventh day. And thô Hippocrates says, that in some Diseases, young people die sooner than old, it holds true indeed in spontaneous and violent Diseases: for old people generally die more of the tediousness of a Disease, and of a relapse, than of the violence of it. But in Wounds it is as we said before. And that you may not be rash in your judgment, we have given you both the nature and times of Wounds.