=Sand-bags= are very useful, when laid along an injured limb, to prop it up on either side. For this purpose they are better than pillows, as their weight prevents their slipping from under the part they support. They should be made of macintosh cloth about 4 or 6 inches diameter, and in lengths varying from 1 to 4 feet, well closed that the sand may not escape through the seams; the macintosh should be covered with flannel, renewed from time to time. The sand should be washed and well dried before the bags are filled, that it may not rot the cloth containing it. Moreover, the bags should be only three quarters full, or they will be too hard to adapt themselves to the limb when in use. =Cradles= are light arched frames of wire or cane to support the bedclothes over an injured limb. On emergency an efficient cradle can be constructed from a band-box, by knocking out the bottom and putting the leg through it. If used to protect a foot, a notch may be cut with strong scissors, _not_ a knife, for that splits the wood. If the cradle is stout enough, it is useful to sling a broken limb in its splint, and often great relief is thus given to the patient. Dr. Salter’s Swing Cradle is specially contrived for the purpose, and is shown, fig. 42, page 64. =Leather Splints.=—For these sole leather, to be purchased at any leather dealer’s, is used. In preparing them, the required length should be first noted down, then a series of transverse measurements taken at the widest and narrowest parts of the limb and over the projections of joints, &c., or a pattern may be first cut in paper and laid on the sheet of leather from which a corresponding piece is cut. The splint should always be so arranged that _its edges_ do not bear on any bony point, the shin, or malleoli, for example, but either fall short of or pass beyond them. The hair side of the leather should go next the skin, as it is the smoothest and least irritating. The edges of the splint must be thinned by bevelling off the outside for about an inch all round, and no sharp corners should be left. When the leather is prepared it should be soaked, if the time can be spared, for twenty-four hours in cold water, but when wanted quickly it can be softened in a few minutes by soaking it in warm water to which a little vinegar is added—this, however, renders the leather brittle when dry, and apt to curl at the edges. When the leather is softened, a very thin even layer of cotton wadding or of lint is laid on next the skin; the splint is then moulded to the limb with the hands, and bandaged firmly; in twelve hours it will be dry and rigid. The roller is then unwound, and any parts of the splint pressing on bony projections are marked before removal. It is then trimmed, and laid between two layers of wash-leather stitched together round the edges. The splint is now finished, and can be either fastened on by a roller or by two or more straps and buckles stitched to it.