Decisiones praecipuorum aliquot aporēmatōn iatrophilosophikōn

and with a paste or by precluding it, or even diluted with sapa boiled grape must, or with must, sweet wine, woman's milk, egg white, and macerated with oils of roses, castoreum, and almonds: as Theodoric the Italian (Book 4, ch. 8) holds, following the opinion of Vigo and Guido (Part 6, Doctrine 1, ch. 8), as also Petrus ab Arcelata (Book 5, Tract 2, ch. 2). He should bind the skin of the dead limb, which has been appropriately positioned, along with the underlying muscles—which have retracted toward the trunk of the body—about one digit’s width below the edge of the healthy part, using a round bandage that, in its application, somewhat imitates a surgical axe referring to a specific spiraling binding technique, and bind it as tightly as possible. This is done to dull the sensation, to intercept the blood, and to ensure a faster and more successful consolidation. Then, at the edge of the cord, he should cut all soft parts down to the bone with a razor or a sharp curved scalpel. Next, he should quickly, safely, and pleasantly saw through the sphacelous gangrenous/necrotic bone, stripped of its membrane, near the line of the incision, mindful of the Galenic precept (Section 2 on the office of the physician, Aphorism 1; and Book 14, Method of Medicine, ch. 13). He must exercise this precaution, however: that the saw does not lacerate the walls of the wound. A cloth of Leonides, soaked in vinegar or austere wine and appropriately placed around the cut flesh, will prevent this. When the blood has flowed moderately (as Hippocrates rightly advises in his Book on Ulcers), he should cauterize the larger vessels with a heated cautery (although Hippocrates in Section 1 on Joints, Aphorism 55, advises against it), as well as the neighboring parts and the entire bone, with the exception of the marrow, with a vigorous and present mind. For fire will not only suppress the flowing blood by inducing an eschara eschar/scab, but will also consume the remnants of the creeping malady. We do not approve of the ligation of vessels by Paresius, by means of the twisting of a crow’s beak a surgical instrument similar to forceps and the ῥαφῆς suture/stitching of a needle passed through many times. Once these things are performed, he should apply to the wound and neighboring parts dressings made of tow, soaked in rose oil, Armenian bole, sarcocolla, and egg yolks. Over these, he should place compresses soaked in oxycratum a mixture of vinegar and water to aid the ἀπόκρισιν secretion/excretion and to check the flow of blood and inflammation. Hence, he shall bind everything with a turunda lint tent/plug. Finally, once the falling of the eschar has been procured by means of the ointment tetrapharmacum a four-ingredient remedy