Part 17
Such pieces of bone as are depressed from their natural position,
either being broken off or chopped off to a considerable extent, are
attended with less danger, provided the membrane be safe; and bones
which are broken by numerous and broader fractures are still less
dangerous and more easily extracted. And you must not trepan any of
them, nor run any risks in attempting to extract the pieces of bone,
until they rise up of their own accord, upon the subsidence of the
swelling. They rise up when the flesh (
granulations) grows below,
and it grows from the diploe of the bone, and from the sound portion,
provided the upper table alone be in a state of necrosis. And the
flesh will shoot up and grow below the more quickly, and the pieces
of bone ascend, if one will get the wound to suppurate and make it
clean as quickly as possible. And when both the tables of the
[p. 157] bone
are driven in upon the membrane, I mean the upper and lower, the wound,
if treated in the same way, will very soon get well, and the depressed
bones will quickly rise up.