On Ulcers (24-25)

Swellings which arise on the feet, either spontaneously or otherwise, when neither the swellings nor the inflammation subside under the use of cataplasms, and although sponges or wool, or anything else be bound upon the sound part; but the swelling and inflammation return of themselves again, an influx of blood

into the veins is the cause, when not occasioned by a bruise. And the same story applies if this happen in any other part of the body. But blood is to be abstracted, especially the from the veins, which are the seat of the influx, if they be conspicuous; but if not, deeper and more numerous scarifications are to be made in the swellings; and whatever part you scarify, this is to be done with the sharpest and most slender instruments of iron. When you have removed the blood, you must not press hard upon the part with the specillum, lest you produce contusion. Bathe with vinegar, and do not allow a clot of blood to remain between the lips of the wounds, and having spread greasy wool with a medicine for bloody wounds, and having carded the woof and made it soft, bind it on, having wetted it with wine and oil. And let the scarified part be so placed that the determination of the blood may be upward and not downward; and do not wet the part at all, and let the patient be put upon a restricted diet and drink water. If upon loosing the bandages you find the scarifications inflamed, apply a cataplasm of the fruit of the chaste-tree and linseed. But if the scarifications become ulcerated and break into one another, we must be regulated by circumstances, and otherwise apply whatever else appears to be proper.

When a varix is on the fore part of the leg, and is very superficial, or below the flesh, and the leg is black, and seems to stand in need of having the blood evacuated from it, such swellings are not, by any means, to be cut open; for, generally, large ulcers are the consequence of the incisions, owing to the influx from the varix. But the varix itself is to be punctured in many places, as circumstances may indicate.