_Apparatus._—1. Diachylon plaster. 2. Can of boiling water. [Illustration: Fig. 26.—Strapping a broken Rib.] Strips of plaster long enough to reach from the spinal column to the sternum, and 2 inches wide, are to be firmly drawn round the injured side. The first strip should be carried as high as can be managed under the arm-pit. The next strip overlaps it about an inch (fig. 26), each succeeding strip overlapping and fixing the preceding one until the lower ribs are covered in. The arm should then be bandaged to the side, and supported in a sling. A _second mode_ of treating fractured ribs, is to take a flannel roller 6 inches wide, and 8 yards long, and carry it firmly round the chest in successive spirals, beginning at the armpits, and passing down till the waist is reached. The turns of the roller may be kept from slipping down by throwing across the shoulders two strips of bandage like a pair of braces, and stitching each turn to the brace in front and behind. The arm should be confined to the side as in the other method. This plan has the inconvenience before mentioned of interfering with respiration. =In Fracture of the Pelvis=, the fragments are kept in position by a broad roller carried several times round the pelvis and fastened. THE UPPER EXTREMITY. =Fracture of the Metacarpal Bones.= _Apparatus._—1. A piece of gutta-percha. 2. A roller 2 inches wide. In treating this fracture it is important to keep the broken bone in place without confining the wrist or fingers. A pattern of the palm and dorsum of the hand is cut out of paper, which is doubled round the radial side, letting the thumb out through a hole of convenient size to clear it (see fig. 27). The piece of paper is then laid on a sheet of gutta-percha ¼ inch thick, and the requisite quantity cut off; a hole as big as a pea is next punched in the gutta-percha in the middle, about 1 inch from the lower border, or at a point corresponding to the hole in the paper for the thumb. The fragments are then pushed into place and held so by an assistant, while the surgeon softens the gutta-percha in boiling water; when thoroughly soft, he draws the thumb through the little hole punched in the gutta-percha, and moulds the splint to the palm and back of the hand, bringing the ends of the gutta-percha together at the ulnar side of the hand; the fragments are held carefully in position till the splint is set. The splint is afterwards removed and trimmed. A few holes should be punched in it after it is moulded to allow perspiration to escape. The splint may then be covered with wash-leather, and a pair of straps with buckles stitched on to keep it in place. It is worn for three or four weeks, or until the fragments are united. [Illustration: Fig. 27.—Gutta-percha Glove for fractured Metacarpal Bone.] Should gutta-percha not be at hand, another plan is effectual. _Apparatus._—1. A firm ball of tow large enough to fill the palm, stitched in old linen. 2. A roller 2 inches wide.