ext-books of the surgeons of the medieval universities is the
occurrence in them of definite directions for securing union in surgical
wounds, at least by first intention and their insistence on keeping
wounds clear. The expression union by first intention comes to us from
the olden time. They even boasted that the scars left after their
incisions were often so small as to be scarcely noticeable. Such
expressions of course could only have come from men who had succeeded in
solving some of the problems of antisepsis that were solved once more in
the generation preceding our own. With regard to their treatment of
wounds, Professor Clifford Allbutt says:[19]

"They washed the wound with wine, scrupulously removing every
foreign particle; then they brought the edges together, not
allowing wine nor anything else to remain within--dry adhesive
surfaces were their desire. Nature, they said, produces the
means of union in a viscous exudation, or natural balm, as it
was afterwards called by Paracelsus, Pare, and Wurtz. In older
wounds they did their best to obtain union by cleansing,
desiccation, and refreshing of the edges. Upon the outer
surface they laid only lint steeped in wine. Powders they
regarded as too desiccating, for powder shuts in decomposing
matters wine after washing, purifying, and drying the raw
surfaces evaporates."

Theodoric comes nearest to us of all these old surgeons. The surgeon
who in 1266 wrote: "For it is not necessary, as Roger and Roland have
written, as many of their disciples teach, and as all _modern_ surgeons
profess, that pus should be generated in wounds. No error can be greater
than this. Such a practice is indeed to hinder nature, to prolong the
disease, and to prevent the conglutination and consolidation of the
wound" was more than half a millennium ahead of his time. The italics in
the word modern are mine, but might well have been used by some early
advocate of antisepsis or even by Lord Lister himself. Just six
centuries almost to the year would separate the two declarations, yet
they would be just as true at one time as at another. When we learn that
Theodoric was proud of the beautiful cicatrices which he obtained
without the use of any ointment, _pulcherrimas cicatrices sine unguento
aliquo inducebat_, then further that he impugned the use of poultices
and of oils on wounds, while powders were too drying and besides had a
t