FRACTURES. 423 
‘tween the skin and the apparatus." According to the indications, fenes- 
‘tra can be made in this apparatus without diminishing its resistance. | 
‘Solidification is quick. To remove the dressing, the envelope is split with 
-a knife or with the cautery. 
With sihcate of potasse, very firm bandages can be made, but their 
~objection is that they take several hours to harden. Bands of linen 
(Fregis) or of paper (Brun) are impregnated with it. F regis uses it prin- 
" -cipally for dogs. 
From this rapid consideration of the various bandages we may draw 
“the following conclusions: In cases of simple fracture, without inflamma- 
tion or marked swelling, apply immediately an immovable dressing, 
Siving preference to those made of plaster, silicate or dextrine. To the 
:superior regions of legs, resort to pitch or resinous mixtures, which adhere 
to the skin and do not get loose. If there is marked swelling, acute 
sensibility or considerable cedema, the best is to apply, first the Scullet 
-or a wadded bandage, consolidated with splints. After a few days, when 
‘the inflammatory symptoms are attenuated, apply an immovable dressing. 
If the fractured region was plastered immediately, the bandage would: 
‘have to be changed after a few days, as soon as the leg would be loose in 
“the apparatus. 
Adjuvants to bandages. In large animals, bandages, notwithstanding - 
‘their resisting force, might give away under the great weight they have to: 
“support, when the animal rests upon the fractured leg. Iron supports are 
added to them, the first specimens of which are due to Chabert and. 
Bourgelat. Some of those are not without value and do not deserve to be 
‘put aside as they are in our days. In his Zssay Upon Apparatus and 
Bandages (1770), Bourgelat describes iron splints which could yet to-day 
‘fulfil useful indications. For fractures of the coronet he had a shoe, to 
the heels of which two metallic rods were attached. These were con- 
nected at the base of the fetlock by a concave plate, padded, which sup. 
‘ported the fetlock. For the fractures of the cannon or of the forearm, a 
tod is started from the toe of the shoe, and run as far as the scapulo humeral 
articulation, which it supports by a widening forming a broad plate. 
Many other apparatus. copied on these have since been invented. 
In cases of fractures in large animals, it is important to prevent the 
‘patient from lying down, efforts to get ‘up being likely to disturb the 
1 For many years we have used gutta-percha, specially for fractures in dogs in general 
-and principally those of the extremities, After protecting the skin with a layer of wad- 
“ding, the entire extremity or only part of it, as the case required, was enveloped witha 
band of gutta, softened by dipping it in warm water; when the splints were well adap- 
‘ted and glued together, it was cooled off with sprinkling cold water overit. This form 
of splints, besides being firm and easily removed, is very light and can therefore be used 
with the smallest animals.—A. LIAUTARD. 
