Book 5
26
But if there is a blackening which is not yet spreading, the milder corrosives of putrid flesh are to be put on, and the wound having been thus cleaned out, is cared for like other wounds. If there is more corruption, and it is already spreading, stronger corrosives are needed. If even these are not effective, the place should be burnt by a cautery until no more humour escapes from it; for sound flesh is dry when it is burnt. After the cauterizing of a putrid wound, such drugs are to be applied as will loosen from the living flesh the crusts which the Greeks call eschara. When these have fallen off, the wound is to be cleaned by honey and resin in particular; but it can also be cleaned by the other materials with which suppurating wounds are treated and in the same way brought to healing.
