Ars chirurgica a compendium of the theory and practice of chirurgery in seven books ... shewing the names, causes, signs, differences, prognosticks, and various intentions of curing all kinds of chirurgick diseases ... : to which is added Pharmacopoeia chirurgica, or, The medical store, Latin and English ... / by William Salmon ...

I. Of Wounds, Mortal, Dange∣rous and Safe.

III. Of Wounds, some are Mor∣tal; some Dangerous; some Safe. Those Wounds may be called Mortal, which are made in a Principal Part; and therefore they are denominated from the Nature and Quality of the Parts, alone: For from the Essence of the Wound, it cannot be, because a Wound, as to its Es∣sence is the same in all Parts, it being a fresh Solution of U∣nity in a soft Part; so that, were any Wound in its Essence Mortal, all Wounds would for that reason be Mortal, and none Safe.

IV. Whether Wounds may be said to be Mortal, from any supervening Symptom: 'Tis true, if grievous Symptoms come between, such a Man must be mortally affected; but in truth, no Wound has from the Symptoms any thing, why it should be Mortal; for if

a Man was wounded in his Foot, and an Inflammation, Gan∣grene, or Convulsion should follow upon it, whereby the Patient should die, must the Wound therefore be said to be Mortal? If so, all Wounds may be so denominated. There∣fore, though supervening Sym∣ptoms may bring Death, yet they can never alter the Nature of a Wound.

V. What Wounds then may be said to be Mortal? Truly all such as are made in the Prin∣cipal Parts and Fountains of the Body; as the Brain, Heart, Li∣ver, Stomach, (from the great Necessity of its Action) and Spinal Marrow, (from its great Affinity with the Brain:) Also such as are made in those Parts, which once divided, scarcely ever grow together again; and yet they exercise some neces∣sary Action of Life; as the Dia∣phragma, Small Guts, and Blad∣der: Lastly, such Parts, as by their large Effusion of Blood, or Spirits, destroy Life, as the great Arteries and Veins. And Hippocrates, Praedict. 2. Aph. 6. and in some other places, dis∣coursing of Mortal Wounds, takes them from the Nature of the wounded Part, and never from any thing else. Yet, if a Man be bit in the Finger by a Viper, or a Rattle-Snake, that may be said to be a Mortal Wound, though neither the Quality of the Part, nor Great∣ness of the Wound makes it so; but that is so, only from the Quality of the Poison infused.

VI. Invisible Wounds in the Great Arteries and Veins, never bring Death, without the inter∣vening of heavy Symptoms. From whence it appears, that those Symptoms, through whose in∣tervention wounded Persons seem to die, do always follow the Nature, Quality, and Ex∣cellency of the wounded Part: So if the Mouth of the Stomach should be wounded, Swooning necessarily supervening, kills the Patient: If the Brain be wounded, a Convulsion, or A∣poplexy supervening, the Party dies: So that Mortal Wounds wholly depend upon the Nature of the Parts wounded; and whatever Symptoms supervene, they always succeed according to the Nature and Property of the Part.

VII. Such Wounds are dange∣rous, as are inflicted on the less Noble or Principal Parts; as a Wound of the Lungs, Spleen, Testicles, Womb, &c. For Wounds of the Lungs have been healed, so also Wounds of the Womb; and the Spleen and Testicles have been totally taken away, and the Animal has done well again: These are such Wounds, as Galen says, have an equal tendency to Life or Death. And to these, such Wounds as are called Cacoethe, or Malig∣nant, and such as are Contu∣macious to Cure, may be refer∣red; also such as touch the ex∣tream Parts of the Liver, or the Meninges of the Brain.

VIII. Such Wounds are safe, which are in Places remote from the Principal Parts, and are void of dangerous Symptoms: That is

to say, such as tend according to the Course of Nature, to Recovery; but these Parts are manifold, and of various kinds, according to their Place and Si∣tuation, Majority or Minority, and other proper Circumstances.