Copy 1

A critical enquiry into the present state of surgery.

  • Samuel Sharp
Date:
1761
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A critical enquiry into the present state of surgery. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    did heal, the Cicatrix proved fo large, and the Stump fo pointed, that it was liable to ulcerate again. Thefe Mifchiefs refulted purely from the want of a lax Skin in the neighbourhood of the Wound 5 for Cicatrization is not effeded by the mere Generation of a new Skin, but chiefly by the Elongation of the Fibres of the circumjacent Skin towards the Center3 and it is only when the Skin refills a farther Exten- fion, that the Cicatrix begins to form 3 from whence it rauft appear plainly, that the more lax the Skin is, the more readily will the Wound heal, and thefmaller will be the Cica¬ trix : But though the old Surgeons could not apply this Maxim to Pradice, fo ufefully as the Moderns now do, yet they made feme Efforts towards it 3 for before they Amputated they drew back the Skin with all their Force, that after the Limb was taken off, they might bring a larger Quantity of it over the Extre¬ mity of the Bone, and obviate in feme degree the Inconveniences I have dated : However, this feems to have been all the Contrivance they were provided with to anfwer fo great an End 3 unlefs it may be admitted that CeZfta had a faint Idea of the Double Inciiion 3 and, to fpeak my own Mind, I queflion whether it can be doubted* In his Chapter on the Gan-