wer angle of the wound a pledget of lint for drainage
purposes was inlaid. Hemorrhage was prevented by pressure, by the
binding on of _burnt_ wool firmly, and by the ligature of veins and by
the cautery.

There are rather interesting discussions of the prognosis of wounds of
the head, especially such as may be determined from general symptoms in
this commentary of the Four Masters on Roger's and Rolando's treatises.
If an acute febrile condition develops, the wound is mortal. If the
patient loses the use of the hands and feet or if he loses his power of
direction, or his sensation, the wound is mortal. If a universal
paralysis comes on, the wound is mortal. For the treatment of all these
wounds careful precautions are suggested. Cold was supposed to be
particularly noxious to them. Operations on the head were not to be done
in cold weather and, above all, not in cold places. The air where such
operations were done must be warmed artificially. Hot plates should
surround the patient's head while the operation was being performed. If
this were not possible they were to be done by candlelight, the candle
being held as close as possible in a warm room. These precautions are
interesting as foreshadowing many ideas of much more modern time and
especially indicating how old is the idea that cold may be taken in
wounds. In popular medicine this still has its place. Whenever a wound
does badly in the winter time patients are sure that they have taken
cold. Such popular medical ideas are always derived from supposedly
scientific medicine, and until we learned about microbes physicians used
the same expressions. We have not got entirely away from them yet.

These old surgeons must have had many experiences with fractures at the
base of the skull. Hemorrhages from the mouth and nose, for instance,
and from the ears were considered bad signs. They were inclined to
suggest that openings into the skull should be discovered by efforts to
demonstrate a connection between the mouth and nares and the brain
cavity. For instance, in their commentary the Four Masters said: "Let
the patient hold his mouth and nostrils tight shut and blow strongly."
If there was any lessening of the pressure or any appearance of air in
the wound in the scalp, then a connection between the mouth and nose was
diagnosticated. This is ingenious but eminently dangerous because of the
infectious material contained in the nasal and oral cavities, so likely
to be forc