Let me point out that the scope of the paper does not cover the whole ground of the wide knowledge possessed by the ancients on the subject of fractures and dislocations. It is merely an enumeration of the apparatus used in the treatment of these, with short extracts indicating the method of employing them. The authorities on the subject are Hippocrates, in his works on Fractures and Articulations, 460 B. C.; Galen in his commentaries on these (130-200 A. D.); Celsus (about 20 A. D.); a chapter by Heliodorus preserved in the works of Oribasius (325 A. D.), and the little encyclopedia of Paulus Ægineta (6th Century A. D.) I have also taken a few illustrations from the Armamentarium of Scultetus.
In the treatment of fractures the ancients employed, as we do to-day, splints, pads and bandages.
Hippocrates in his book on Fractures gives a very complete account of the method of applying these.
First of all, the limb was smeared with a waxy composition, called cerate, in order to prevent the bandages from slipping. The bones having been got into position by means of extension and other manipulations, a roller bandage soaked in cerate ([Fig. 1]) was fixed by one or two turns round the seat of the fracture, and then carried upward for several turns. ([Fig. 2.])
Next, a second waxed bandage was applied, beginning as before at the fracture, passing downwards for several turns ([Fig. 3]), and then upwards to end at the same spot as the first bandage.
Next, elongated pads, formed of folded linen and stiffened with cerate, ([Fig. 4]) were laid along the limb in such a way as to cover it completely, and fixed by the application of roller bandages which had as before been dipped in cerate.
No splints were applied at this time, so that so far, the treatment corresponds in principle to the immovable bandages of gum and chalk or plaster of Paris which we employ to-day. On the third day, the swelling of the part having subsided and the bandaging having become somewhat loose, the whole was removed and the limb bathed with hot water, and the bandages and pads were applied as before.
Fig. 1. Waxing a bandage. After Scultetus. Double spatulæ of the form shown are found among ancient Roman instruments from Pompeii.