[p. 175] the head of which is to be placed at the fracture,
and the bandage should impart firmness to the parts without occasioning
strong compression. When you have carried the bandage twice or thrice
round at the seat of the fracture, it is to be carried upward, so
that the afflux of blood into it may be stopped, and the bandage should
terminate there, and the first bandages ought not to be long. The
head of the second bandage is also to be placed upon the seat of the
fracture, and a single round of it being made there, it is then to
be carried downward, and is not to be applied so tight as the other,
and there should be greater distances between the turns, so that the
bandage may prove sufficient to revert to the spot where the other
terminated. The bandages may be rolled to the left hand or to the
right, or to whatever side suits best with the position of the fractured
arm, or according to the inclination which it may have. Afterward
we must place along the arm, compresses, smeared with a little cerate,
for thus they occasion less uneasiness, and are more easily arranged.
And then we must apply the bandages crossways, sometimes to the right
hand, and sometimes to the left, for the most part beginning below
and terminating above, but sometimes commencing above and ending below.
The parts which are thinly covered with flesh should be wrapped round
with compresses, and inequalities should be made up, not by a number
of folds at once, but by degrees. Some slack turns are also to be
made around the wrist, to this side and to that. These two bandages
are sufficient at first.
Part 5
And these are the signs that the patient has been well treated and
properly bandaged: if you ask him if the arm feels tight, and he says
it does, but moderately so, and especially about the fracture; and
this reply he should make all along, if the bandage be properly applied.
And these are symptoms of the bandaging being moderately tight; if
for the first day and night he fancies that the tightness does not
diminish, but rather increases; and if on the next day there be a
soft swelling in the hand, for this is a sign of moderate compression,
but at the end of the second day the compression should feel less,
and on the third day the bandaging should appear loose. And if any
of
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