SECT. XXXVIII.—ON PAINFUL AND INFLAMMATORY SORES.
To painful and inflamed wounds desiccant and anti-inflammatory remedies must be applied. Of liquid remedies the best is wine, but oxycrate is also a good remedy. But if the ulcer is foul as well as inflamed, much diluted hydromel may be used. Of dry medicines, those in general will apply which are mentioned for phlegmons, except such as are oily and acrid. This is a particularly excellent one: Having boiled the sweet pomegranate in wine and pounded, apply it. This is an admirable application and much used, for it applies to ulcers of the head, and those of the privy parts, and to very painful sores on all parts of the body, and to inflammations of the eyes. But if the erysipelas or the like attack an ulcer, we must have recourse to the remedies described for them.
Commentary. Hippocrates gives a long list of applications for inflamed sores. We have mentioned above that wine was one of his favorite remedies. If erysipelas come on, he directs us to purge either upwards or downwards.
Galen explains general principles. Our author copies closely from Oribasius.
Avicenna and Rhases agree with Paulus in approving of cooling or desiccative applications, such as a decoction of sweet pomegranate in Pontic wine. This application is recommended by Haly Abbas, who also mentions a cataplasm containing opium.