General Diseases of Bones, Joints and Muscles. 305 



dipped in water before it is applied ; or pieces of sheet- 

 iron carefully padded to prevent chafing and secure perfect 

 adaptation^ and bound firmly by a surface bandage ; or 

 wooden splints may be fashioned to the form of one side 

 of the limb and applied with a sufficient internal padding. 

 It is usually needful to apply one of these wooden or iron 

 splints outside the starch or gutta-percha cases, in the 

 larger animals, to give the requisite soHditj^ In all 

 cases the limb should be accurately wrapped in a long 

 narrow strip of cotton or linen as a protection before the 

 apphcation of the bandage proper. The bandage should 

 always extend to the extremity of the limb (hoof or claws), 

 otherwise the uncovered portion wUl swell, inflame, and 

 perhaps die. It should not only fix immovably aU the 

 joints below the fracture but if possible the next above as 

 well, as by this means, as well as by the enforced immo- 

 bility of the muscles, the perfect rest of the broken ends 

 is secured. 



If swelling existed before the apphcation of the bandage, 

 it may become loose in a day or two and should be re- 

 opened and more accurately applied, care being taken to 

 secure equal pressure from the extremity up. The starch 

 bandage may be sKt open up the side and when properly 

 padded reapphed with the one edge overlapping the other 

 as far as necessary, and fixed by a long bandage applied 

 over all. The plaster bandage may be adapted by filhng 

 up the interval between the soft skin bandage and the 

 plaster case with a thin pulpy mixture of plaster of Paris 

 and water poured in at the top. 



The limb should be kept in the bandage for a month or 

 six weeks, and will require a rest of two or three months 

 more, for the consolidation of the new tissue, before being 

 put to work. 



Fractures in the upper parts of the limbs of quadrupeds, 



which it is impossible to fix by bandages, may yet recover 



with very little shortening or distortion if the break is 



transverse. Fractures of these parts and of the riba 



26* 



