Kitap 5
26
In some of these medicaments are more effectual, in others surgery. Postponing those conditions which demand in particular the scalpel and surgical treatment, I will speak now of those which chiefly require medicaments. As I have done before, I shall divide this part of treatment, and speak first of those lesions which may occur in any part of the body, then of those which attack particular parts. I shall begin with wounds.
26
In this connexion, however, a practitioner should know above all which wounds are incurable, which may be cured with difficulty, and which more readily. For it is the part of a prudent man first not to touch a case he cannot save, and to the risk the appearance of having killed one whose lot is but to die; next, when there is grave fear without, however, absolute despair, to point out to the patient's relatives that hope is surrounded by difficulty, for then if the art is overcome by the malady, he may not seem to have been ignorant or mistaken. But while such steps become a prudent practitioner, it is like a mountebank to exaggerate a small matter in order to enhance his own achievement. It is right to commit himself to a statement that a case is simple in order that he may examine it with even more care for fear a case slight in itself may become worse by negligence on the doctor's part.
