Fig. 51.—Fracture below the trochanters; bone in angular union. ] _Double incline planes_ are sometimes employed alone. The limb is raised over a wooden frame about 8 inches broad, with a double slope high enough at the apex for the leg and foot to hang unsupported down the further side (fig. 52). It is well padded before being applied, and the leg and thigh secured to it by a roller passed round the limb and plane, or better, a trough of gutta-percha may be moulded to the limb while it is on the plane, and when set, screwed down to the wood at one or two points; in this the limb rests securely. [Illustration: Fig. 52.—Double incline planes.] =Slinging the double incline planes= was practised many years ago by Mayor of Lausanne, and has been much used recently. It is an apparatus very easy for the patient, and particularly well suited for compound fractures of the thigh, for fractures near the trochanters that require a flexed position, or for fractures of the neck of the femur where the patient’s feebleness does not permit the constraint of the long splint. _Apparatus._—1. A bent wire frame (see fig. 53) with a separate foot-piece. 2. Two pulleys, a rope with tent stretchers passing up to hooks in the ceiling, or some suitable support. 3. One long and one short soft pad. 4. Strapping plaster, and some ends of bandage. Step 1. The limb is washed and dried, and the short pad fitted to the foot-piece, which is furnished with some hooks at its lower surface, where ends of bandage or tape can be fastened, for fixing it to the wire frame. The frame is next prepared by passing strips of bandage across it from side to side at short intervals, to make a support on which the limb is laid; if there is no wound, a soft pad may be put on the frame first, but if one be present, the limb should rest immediately on the strips of bandage, which can be changed whenever soiled, and replaced by clean ones without disturbing the limb. These strips should be tacked on with a needle and thread, that, when the limb is placed on the apparatus, they can be shortened or lengthened till the leg bears evenly on them (see fig. 53). [Illustration: Fig. 53.—Double incline plane, slung.] Step 2. The foot-piece is adjusted and fastened to the foot by straps of plaster carried round it and up each side of the leg, as was done for the stirrup extension in the “long splint” (p. 76).