[p. 150] and not safe from the
wound, you must first ascertain the state of the bone, and the extent
of the mischief, and of what assistance it stands in need. One should
also inquire of the wounded person how and in what way he sustained
the injury; and if it be not apparent whether the bone has sustained
an injury or not, it will be still more necessary, provided the bone
be denuded, to make inquiry how the wound occurred, and in what manner;
for when contusions and fractures existin the bone, but are not apparent,
we must ascertain, in the first place from the patient's answers,
whether or not the bone has sustained any such injuries, and then
find out the nature of the case by word and deed, with the exception
of sounding. For sounding does not discover to us whether the bone
has sustained any of these injuries or not; but sounding discovers
to us an indentation inflicted by a weapon, and whether a bone be
depressed from its natural position, and whether the bone be strongly
fractured; all which may also be ascertained visibly with the eyes.
Part 11
And a bone sustains fractures, either so fine as to escape the sight,
or such as are apparent, and contusions which are not apparent, and
depression from its natural position, especially when one person is
intentionally wounded by another, or when, whether intentionally or
not, a blow or stroke is received from an elevated place, and if the
instrument in the hand, whether used in throwing or striking, be of
a powerful nature, and if a stronger person wound a weaker. Of those
who are wounded in the parts about the bone, or in the bone itself,
by a fall, he who falls from a very high place upon a very hard and
blunt object is in most danger of sustaining a fracture and contusion
of the bone, and of having it depressed from its natural position;
whereas he that falls upon more level ground, and upon a softer object,
is likely to suffer less injury in the bone, or it may not be injured
at all. Of those instruments which, falling upon the head, wound the
parts about the bone, or the bone itself, that which falls from a
very high place, and the least on a level with the person struck,
and which is at the same time very hard, very blunt, and very heavy,
and which is the least light, sharp, and soft, such an instrument
would occasion a fracture and
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