BOOK VII. 2. 6-7. 2

leave a myrtle leaf shaped wound, in order that it may heal more readily: and this should be the constant rule, whenever, or for whatever reason, the practitioner cuts out skin. Where the pus has been let out, for the armpit or groin lint plugging is unsuitable, but a sponge squeezed out of wine must be put on. In other parts, if likewise a lint plug is unnecessary, a little honey should be infused into the cavity to clean it, then agglutinants put on: if lint plugs are needed, over them also should be placed sponges similarly squeezed out of wine. But it has been said elsewhere original: "alias (V. 28. 11 E) dictum est" when plugging is, and is not requisite. In all other ways the same procedure is to be followed after an abscess has been opened by incision, which I have described for one which has ruptured under medicaments.

3. Now how the treatment is succeeding, how much is to be either hoped or feared, can be learnt straightway from signs which on the whole are the same as have been mentioned already for wounds. Good signs are: ready sleep, easy breathing, no harassing thirst, no aversion to food; for any feverishness to pass off; and for the pus to be white and uniform, not foul. Bad signs are: wakefulness, laboured breathing, thirst, aversion to food, fever, the pus dark or like wine lees, and foul. Again, bad signs in the course of the treatment are: haemorrhage, or if the margins become fleshy before the sinus has been filled up by flesh, and this flesh is insensitive and not firm. But the worst sign of all is a faint, whether during the dressing, or after it. Again there is some reason for anxiety when the illness suddenly subsides, and then suppuration breaks out; or if the illness persists after the pus