A brief discussion on opening abscesses

Whoever wants to open an abscess must, when cutting it, follow the direction of the skin wrinkles and folds present on a given organ, unless it is an organ such as the forehead, then when opening the abscess, if it goes in the direction of the folds and wrinkles, the frontal forehead will be cut muscle and the paralyzed eyelid will fall. This also applies to organs in which the direction of the skin folds is different from the direction of the muscle fibers.

The person opening the abscess must know the anatomy, that is, the anatomy of the nerves, veins and arteries, so as not to mistakenly cut any of them and thereby lead the patient to death. He should have a certain amount of hemostatic drugs, pain-relieving patches and related products with him. So, for example, he should have with him Galen's medicine, hare hair, cobwebs, for cobwebs have a clearly useful property in this sense, as well as egg whites and all types of cauterizations to stop the bleeding if he happens to make a mistake or there is a need to stop the bleeding. And let him have emollient medicines with him, in accordance with what we say in the Book of Simple Medicines.

When you open an abscess, remove its contents. You should not apply fat, liquid or a plaster in which fat or olive oil predominates, such as basilikun, to an abscess; it is better to use a plaster with vitriol, applying it when necessary, and placing a sponge soaked in an astringent drink on top of it.