- perienced physician. The vein should be incised in a longitudinal
direction, midway between its two sides. The moment the blood gushes from the opening its color and general appearance should be carefully noted, etc.
Book V., Chapter XXVI.—The Proper Manner of Arresting Hemorrhage from a Wound.—If there is fear that there may be bleeding, one should fill the wound with dry lint, place over it a sponge wrung out of cold water, and press upon it with the hand. If the bleeding still continues, it is advisable to change the stuffing of lint somewhat frequently; and, if this step proves ineffective, then lint moistened with vinegar may be tried, for this liquid acts energetically in arresting hemorrhage. Some physicians, indeed, actually pour it into the wound. There is a strong objection, however, to the use of an agent which, like vinegar, arrests the bleeding too completely—viz., that it is apt to set up afterwards an intense inflammation of the parts. The same reasoning applies with even greater force to the employment of corrosives and caustics, which produce an eschar. Despite the effectiveness of most of these in arresting hemorrhage, their use should be discouraged. . . . Finally, if the bleeding continues it will be necessary to grasp the vessel from which the blood is escaping, to ligature it in two places close to the wound, and then to divide the vessel between the two ligatures, in order that it may retract (both of the new orifices having already been closed by the ligatures). If the circumstances are such that the plan just recommended cannot be carried out, it will then be advisable to apply the red-hot cautery to the bleeding vessel. When a rather free hemorrhage occurs at a part of the body where there are no nerve trunks and no muscles,—as on the forehead or at the top of the head,—the simplest plan is to apply a cup at some little distance from the source of the bleeding and thus divert the current of the blood from the spot affected.
And to these two longer extracts may be added a third:—
From these considerations the inference is warranted that a
physician cannot possibly give proper attention to a large number
of patients. (Book III., Chapter IV.)
Celsus' treatise was ignored by physicians for many
centuries, but it was considered by the monks, in the Middle
Ages, a valuable guide in the treatment of disease; and
it was probably owing to this circumstance, says Védrènes,
