16. Is it to be wondered at then that a perfect cure of fractures of the fore-arm has been regarded as a thing of so much difficulty, and that most authors should have advised practitioners, as a thing of prudence, to warn the patient of its being impracticable to cure him, without the loss of the motions of pronation and supination? Thus, in like manner, it was formerly declared, that a constant deformity was the necessary consequence of fractures of the clavicle. 17. Petit first conceived, that he discovered, in the very means destined to prevent the displacement, the cause of its being continued, and that, in order to be effective, the bandage ought to do constantly what the hands of the surgeon do at the time of reduction (13); that is, it ought to oppose to the unremitting action of the pronators, a resistance equally unremitting, by pressing the muscles into the interstice between the bones. But, after having discovered the end to be attained, he accomplished it only in an imperfect manner. For by first applying a roller immediately round the fore-arm, he reproduced, in part, the very inconveniences and disadvantages he wished to prevent, by placing anteriorly and posteriorly two long and thick graduated compresses, intended to keep the bones asunder, by forcing the muscles between them. 18. Duverney, more judicious, proposed to place the graduated compresses of Petit on two circular compresses, previously applied round the fore-arm. But what availed these circular compresses? If they be drawn tight, will they not produce that approximation of the bones which the surgeon wishes to avoid? And if they be not tight, they will, in consequence of their loose and pliable state, form troublesome and inconvenient wrinkles, without being productive of any good to counterbalance this inconvenience.