Fig. 2. Waxed bandage fixed over site of fracture and carried upwards for several turns. After Scultetus.
Fig. 3. Second waxed bandage fixed over the site of fracture and carried downwards for several turns, preparing to return upwards and end at the top of the first bandage. After Scultetus.
Three days afterwards, i. e., on the seventh day from the accident, the swelling was expected to be quite gone, and the bandages again loosened, and now these having been removed and the limb having been bathed, the pads and bandages were put on as before, but this time splints were applied in addition. ([Fig. 5.]) These were narrow and rod-like, and were arranged all round the limb, the breadth of a finger intervening between each, and were kept in place by three or four strings tied just tight enough to keep the splints in position without their action contributing at all to the compression of the part. The splints were examined every third day till bony union had taken place, and the whole dressing was reapplied whenever it became loose.
In addition to the fixation by the above methods the part was further put at rest by a sling, in the case of the upper limb, and in that of the lower, by elevating it in bed on a pillow or a box splint.
Compound fractures were not treated with splints until the wound had healed, but were lightly put up in pads and bandages and laid in a box splint and dressed frequently. If there was much discharge, a goat’s skin was placed beneath, to catch the discharge and embrocations.
We shall now consider a little more fully each of the materials mentioned above.
Roller Bandages. Hippocrates says that the bandages should be clean, light, soft, thin, and without seams, yet strong enough to bear stretching. Their breadth should be proportionate to the part under treatment. They should be three, four, or five finger breadths broad, and as many cubits in length.