Part 12
When the bone happens to be denuded of flesh by the weapon, and when
the wound occurs upon the sutures, it is difficult to distinguish
the indentation (
hedra) of a weapon which is clearly recognized in
other parts of the bone, whether it exist or not, and especially if
the
hedra be seated in the sutures themselves. For the suture being
rougher than the rest of the bone occasions confusion, and it is not
clear which is the suture, and which the mark inflicted by the instrument,
unless the latter
[p. 152] (
hedra) be large. Fracture also for the most part
is combined with the indentation when it occurs in the sutures; and
this fracture is more difficult to discern when the bone is broken,
on this account, that if there be a fracture, it is situated for the
most part in the suture. For the bone is liable to be broken and slackened
there, owing to the natural weakness of the bone there, and to its
porosity, and from the suture being readily ruptured and slackened:
but the other bones which surround the suture remain unbroken, because
they are stronger than the suture. For the fracture which occurs at
the suture is also a slackening of the suture, and it is not easy
to detect whether the bone be broken and slackened by the indentation
of a weapon occurring in the suture, or from a contusion of the bone
at the sutures; but it is still more difficult to detect a fracture
connected with contusion. For the sutures, having the appearance of
fissures, elude the discernment and sight of the physician, as being
rougher than the rest of the bone, unless the bone be strongly cut
and slackened (for a cut and a
hedra are the same thing). But it is necessary, if the wound has occurred at the sutures, and the weapon
has impinged on the bone or the parts about it, to pay attention and
find out what injury the bone has sustained. For a person wounded
to the same, or a much smaller, extent, and by weapons of the same
size and quality, and even much less, will sustain a much greater
injury, provided he has received the blow at the sutures, than if
it was elsewhere. And many of these require trepanning, but you must
not apply the trepan to the sutures themselves, but on the adjoining
bone.
