Transcriber’s Note: The figures appear to have been mis-numbered: thereis no Fig. 23, nor any reference to one in the text. Figures can beclicked for larger versions.
THE APPARATUS USED BY THEGREEKS AND ROMANS IN THESETTING OF FRACTURES ANDTHE REDUCTION OF DISLOCATIONS.
BY
JOHN S. MILNE,
General Practitioner in Hartlepool (a smoky townon the Northeast Coast of England).
REPRINT FROM THE
INTERSTATE MEDICAL JOURNAL,
Vol. XVI., Nos. 2 and 3.
ST. LOUIS:
Interstate Medical Journal Co.
1909.
THE APPARATUS USED BY THE GREEKS AND ROMANSIN THE SETTING OF FRACTURES AND THEREDUCTION OF DISLOCATIONS.
By John S. Milne, GeneralPractitioner in Hartlepool (a smoky town on the Northeast Coast ofEngland).
Let me point out that the scope of the paper does not cover the wholeground of the wide knowledge possessed by the ancients on the subjectof fractures and dislocations. It is merely an enumeration of the apparatusused in the treatment of these, with short extracts indicatingthe method of employing them. The authorities on the subject areHippocrates, in his works on Fractures and Articulations, 460 B. C.;Galen in his commentaries on these (130-200 A. D.); Celsus (about 20A. D.); a chapter by Heliodorus preserved in the works of Oribasius(325 A. D.), and the little encyclopedia of Paulus Ægineta (6th CenturyA. D.) I have also taken a few illustrations from the Armamentariumof 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 accountof the method of applying these.
First of all, the limb was smeared with a waxy composition, calledcerate, in order to prevent the bandages from slipping. Thebones having been got into position by means of extension and othermanipulations, a roller bandage soaked in cerate (Fig. 1) was fixed byone or two turns round the seat of the fracture, and then carried upwardfor several turns. (Fig. 2.)
Next, a second waxed bandage was applied, beginning as before atthe fracture, passing downwards for several turns (Fig. 3), and thenupwards 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 beforebeen dipped in cerate.
No splints were applied at this time, so that so far, the treatment correspondsin principle to the immovable bandages of gum and chalk orplaster of Paris which we employ to-day. On the third day, the swellingof the part having subsided and the bandaging having become somewhatloose, the whole was removed and the limb bathed with hot water, andthe bandages and pads were applied as before.