Extension being directed at first in the course or line of the displacement, till the limb had attained its usual length, was then directed in such a way as to restore to the leg its natural form. By this, the fragments being brought into apposition, united exactly without the process of coaptation being employed.[34] The apparatus, usually employed by Desault in such cases, was applied to maintain the reduction: the different pieces of it had been previously arranged on a pillow in the following order: 1st, four strong pieces of tape placed at equal distances from each other; 2dly, a junk-cloth,[35] long enough to reach from the knee beyond the sole of the foot; 3dly, a bandage of strips, similar to that described for the thigh (page 246), arranged in the usual mode; 4thly, two long compresses, the lower one of which being the longest was turned back on the other; three bolsters had also been prepared; these, being formed of several pieces of linen joined together, were about one inch and a half thick: the broadest of these was designed to be placed on the anterior part of the leg; the two other lateral ones, though narrower, were a little longer, in order that, by folding back on themselves, they might be accommodated to the inequalities of the limb; 6thly, lastly, there were also prepared two splints, an inch broad, three lines thick, and of the same length with the junk-cloth. [34] That is, without any assistance from the hands of the surgeon. TRANS. [35] Analogous in its form and uses to that employed in fractures of the thigh. It may not be amiss, on this occasion to mention, that in the form of apparatus for oblique fractures of the leg, represented in the Appendix, plate III. no junk-cloth is necessary. TRANS. Every thing being ready, the assistants still keeping up extension raised the leg a little, while a pillow was slipped under it, to support it equally and uniformly throughout its whole length. The leg was placed on this pillow in such a way as to correspond exactly to the middle of the apparatus which was arranged in order on it, and was previously wet with vegeto-mineral water. On the anterior part of the leg was then applied a long compress, extending from the knee to the upper part of the foot. Over this were lapped the other two compresses, which had been previously placed in order as part of the apparatus. These were then secured by the bandage of strips, the application of which was begun at the lower strip next to the foot, and continued successively upwards with the rest, making them cross each other at the anterior part of the leg.