[18] On this point Desault is certainly mistaken. Paste-board, when of a proper thickness and well applied, makes an excellent splint for fractures of the fore-arm. It moulds itself to the form of the arm, sits easy, and retains the fracture extremely well.
Trans.
[19] Not generally named in English works of anatomy.
[20] Echancrure sigmoide.
[21] That deep depression in the os humeri, which, in a natural state of the parts, receives the upper end of the olecranon process.
Trans.
[22] (La longueur, l’epaisseur, et la direction.) That is, the thigh may be shorter than natural, owing to the ends of the broken bone overlapping each other; it may have a protuberance on one side, in consequence of these ends being separated or displaced laterally; or the direction of the limb may be changed, by a bend or angle being produced in the bone at the place of the fracture.
Trans.
[23] A term of nearly the same import with “conformation.”
Trans.
[24] (Le lit d’Hippocrate.) As many of the machines mentioned here have probably never been seen in this country, and as there is, perhaps, scarcely one of them used, at present, in any country, I shall not consume the time of the reader by troubling him with descriptions of them.
Trans.
[25] (Drap-fanon.) This is a piece of linen or muslin (Desault appears to have used flannel, which is not however so good) spread under the broken limb, reaching in length from one end of it to the other, and wide enough to go about twice round it. It is to be folded at its edges several times round the internal and the long external splints, in order to retain them the better, and make them bear with more steadiness and advantage on the limb. The junk-cloth and these two splints, when properly applied, form a kind of soft elastic case, in which the limb rests. This case is of service in securing the bolsters in their places. The junk-cloth is the outside piece of the apparatus, except the bits of tape which go round and secure the whole. In arranging the different pieces, therefore, on the bed or mattress, where the patient is to lie, the surgeon places the tapes first, the junk-cloth next, the bandage of strips next, and so on, in an order the reverse of that in which he afterwards applies them on the limb.
Trans.
[26] Le Spica de l’aine.
Trans.
[27] (L’ecusson.) The literal meaning of this word is an escutcheon, or a coat of arms. But when used in surgical language, it signifies a retentive or strengthening plaster. Such I conceive its meaning to be in the present instance.
Trans.