Note 790 — ON INJURIES OF THE HEAD.

The nature of this mode of injury is explained in the annotations on the third paragraph. It does not appear clear why our author has given two separate descriptions of this injury. He describes, it will be remarked, several varieties of it, according as it is complicated or not with contusion and fracture. Galen uses hedra in one place. (Meth. Med. vi.) The term hedra is rendered teli sedes by the Latin translators of the Greek medical authors. (See Asellii Comment. in Hippocrat. de Vuln. Capit.) It is used also by Ambrose Paré, Wiseman, and all our earlier writers on surgery. Wiseman thinks the term most appropriate when applied to wounds inflicted by a pole-axe, halberd, or the like. (v. 9.) Paré applies it to a kind of injury, in which the bone is not broken through, but the print of the weapon is left on the skull. (xx., 7.) Fallopius gives an interesting discussion on it. (In librum Hippocrat. de Vuln. Capit.) The term incision, borrowed from Paulus Ægineta, has been since used in its stead. See Quesnay, on the Use of the Trepan, p. 29, Syd. Soc. edition; and on simple incisions or sabre-cuts, see, in particular, Mr. Guthrie, Injuries of the Head, p. 86.