“A piece of soft shawl should be glued to the end of the piece of wood so as to give the least pain on pressure.
“Having pushed the end of this piece of wood as far in as possible, between the ribs and the head of the humerus, the whole arm is to be stretched along this piece of wood, and is to be bound round at the arm, the forearm, and the wrist, so that it may be particularly well secured, but great pains should be taken that this piece of wood should be introduced as far into the armpit as possible, and that it is carried past the head of the humerus.
“Then a crossbeam is to be securely fixed between two pillars, and afterwards the arm, with the piece of wood attached to it, is to be brought over this crossbeam so that the arm may be on one side of it and the body on the other and then the arm with the piece of wood is to be forced down. The crossbeam is to be fixed so high that the rest of the body is raised on tiptoe.
“This is by far the most powerful method of effecting the reduction of the shoulder for thus one operates with the lever on the most approved principles.”
Celsus (Bk. VII, ch. xv) describes the ambè thus:
“A wooden spattle is necessary if the body is rather big and the tendons are rather strong, and it should be of the thickness of two fingers and in length reach from the axilla to the fingers. And at the top of it there is a head rounded and gently hollowed out, so as to receive a part of the head of the humerus. In it there are two holes at three places separated from each other by an interval, and in these soft thongs are inserted.
Fig. 20. Patient with arm arranged in the machine of Fabrus for reduction of dislocation of shoulder. The thongs from a clove hitch applied above the elbow are taken over two pulleys above and two pulleys below so that the clove hitch cannot move up nor down, and the elbow is thus maintained at the same level. (N. B. These thongs are not connected to the axle in any way.) Patient strapped so that he cannot resist the treatment.
