On Ulcers
Part 1
We must avoid wetting all sorts of ulcers except with wine, unless
the ulcer be situated in a joint. For, the dry is nearer to the sound,
and the wet to the unsound, since an ulcer is wet, but a sound part
is dry. And it is better to leave the part without a bandage unless
a unless a cataplasm be applied. Neither do certain ulcers admit of
cataplasms, and this is the case with the recent rather than the old,
and with those situated in joints. A spare diet and water agree with
all ulcers, and with the more recent rather than the older; and with
an ulcer which either is inflamed or is about to be so; and where
there is danger of gangrene; and with the ulcers an inflammation in
joints; and where there is danger of convulsion; and in wounds of
the belly; but most especially in fractures of the head and thigh,
or any other member in which a fracture may have occurred. In the
case of an ulcer, it is not expedient to stand; more especially if
the ulcer be situated in the leg; but neither, also, is it proper
to sit or walk. But quiet and rest are particularly expedient. Recent
ulcers, both the ulcers themselves and the surrounding parts, will
be least exposed to inflammation, if one shall bring them to a suppuration
as expeditiously as possible, and if the matter is not prevented from
escaping by the mouth of the sore; or, if one should restrain the
suppuration, so that only a small and necessary quantity of pus may
be formed, and the sore may be kept dry by a medicine which does not
create irritation. For the part becomes inflamed when rigor and throbbing
supervene; for ulcers then get inflamed when suppuration is about
to form. A sore suppurates when the blood is changed and be-