19. It was from these different considerations, that Desault modified, as I am about to mention, the apparatus for fractures of the fore-arm. To a great degree of simplicity, this apparatus unites, when thus improved, great ease to the patient, and its advantages are proven by the freedom in the different movements of the arm always experienced by the numerous patients, whom he was called to attend. The pieces of the apparatus are, 1st, Two graduated compresses, one of them of such a length as to extend from the elbow to the wrist, and the other from the wrist to the fold of the arm on the inside. They are to be formed each of a single piece of linen, folded seven or eight times on itself, in such a manner, that the lower fold may be an inch wide, while the others, laid on top of each other, gradually diminish in width to the last. The thickness of these compresses ought to be less in very fat persons, where the anterior and posterior surfaces of the arm are more convex. 2dly, A roller about four yards and a half long, and four inches wide. 3dly, Four thin but stiff wooden splints, long enough to reach, one, from the fold of the arm to the wrist, the second, from the interval or hollow space between the olecranon and the condyl to the same part, the third from the internal condyl of the humerus to the styloid process of the ulna, and the fourth from the eternal condyl to the styloid apophysis of the radius. The breadth of the two first ought to be double that of the other two, as the latter occupy a space of but half the width of that occupied by the former. 20. Every thing being arranged, the reduction is to be executed as already directed (11–13); and while the extensions are still continued, the surgeon wets with vegeto-mineral water, or some other discutient liquid, the graduated compresses, and places them on the anterior and posterior part of the fore-arm, (which must be firmly supported in a state between that of pronation and supination, 11), in such a manner, that their broadest part or base may be in immediate contact with the limb. He then secures them with a roller wet with the same liquid, the casts of which, being first fixed at the place of the fracture, descend obliquely to the wrist, and are secured at the hand by being passed between the thumb and the fore-finger. Running across the back of the hand, the roller then reascends, either by oblique or reverse turns, according to the inequalities of the fore-arm, till it reaches the elbow. Here the surgeon relinquishes the roller, giving it into the hand of an assistant, and places the four splints on the parts already mentioned (19), while the hands of a second assistant secures them, by grasping them all at their lower end, next to the wrist. The surgeon then resumes the roller, and, in order to fix the splints immoveably, descends with it along the fore-arm by circular casts, till he reaches the hand, where he finishes.