PART 21
The swellings which arise in the ham, at the foot, or in any other
part from the pressure, should be well wrapped in unscoured and carded
wool, washed with wine and oil, and anointed with cerate, before bandaging;
and if the splints give pain they should be slackened. You may sooner
reduce the swellings, by laying aside the splints, and applying plenty
of bandages to them, beginning from below and rolling upward; for
thus the swellings will be most speedily reduced, and the humors be
propelled to the parts above the former bandages. But this form of
bandaging must not be used unless there be danger of vesications or
blackening in the swelling, and nothing of the kind occurs unless
the fracture be bound too tight, or unless the limb be allowed to
hang, or it be rubbed with the hand, or some other thing of an irritant
nature be applied to the skin.


PART 22
More injury than good results from placing below the thigh a canal
which does not pass farther down than the ham, for it neither prevents
the body nor the leg from being moved without the thigh. And it creates
uneasiness by being brought down to the ham, and has a tendency to
produce what of all things should be avoided, namely, flexion at the
knee, for this completely disturbs the bandages; and when the thigh
and leg are bandaged, if one bend the limb at the knee, the muscles
necessarily assume another shape, and the broken bones are also necessarily
moved. Every endeavor then should be made to keep the ham extended.
But it appears to me, that a canal which embraces the limb from the
nates to the foot is of use. And moreover, a shawl should be put loosely
round at the ham, along with the canal, as children are swathed in
bed; and then, if the thigh-bone gets displaced either upward or to
the side, it can be more easily kept in position by this means along
with the canal. The canal then should be made so as to extend all
along the limb or not used at all.


PART 23
The extremity of the heel should be particularly attended to, so that
it may be properly laid, both in fractures of the leg and of the thigh.
For if the foot be placed in a dependent position, while the rest
of the body is supported, the limb must present a curved appearance
at the forepart of the leg; and if the heel be placed higher than
is proper, and if the rest of the leg be rather too low, the bone
at the forepart of the leg must present a hollow, more especially
if the heel of the patient be naturally large. But all the bones get
consolidated more slowly, if not laid properly, and if not kept steady
in the same position, and in this case the callus is more feeble.


PART 24
These things relate to cases in which there is fracture of the bones
without protrusion of the same or wound of any other kind. In those
cases in which the bones are simply broken across, and are not comminuted,
but protrude, if reduced the same day or next, and secured in their
place, and if there be no reason to anticipate that any splintered
bones will come away; and in those in which the broken bones do not
protrude, nor is the mode of fracture such that there is reason to
expect the splinters will come out, some physicians heal the sores
in a way which neither does much good nor harm, by means of a cleansing
application, applying pitch ointment, or some of the dressings for
fresh wounds, or anything else which they are accustomed to do, and
binding above them compresses wetted with wine, or greasy wool, or
something else of the like nature. And when the wounds become clean