Bandages are those surgical appliances, made of linen, calico, or flannel, either in long narrow strips called rollers, in belts, fillets, or triangular sections; they are used to keep dressings in a proper situation, to compress blood-vessels, and check dangerous bleeding, to rectify deformities, maintain fractures in their position, and to unite wounds and breaches in the continuity of parts. Bandages, of whatever material made, should be strong enough to bear extension, and support the part to which they are applied; and sufficiently supple and elastic to fold with ease, and yield to the expansion of the tissues below them. They should be without either seam or selvage, and have smooth unravelled edges. Bandages are either simple or compound. A _simple bandage_ is a long narrow piece of linen, calico, or flannel of any length, from three to nine yards, and of a width varying from two to six inches. When such a strip is tightly and evenly rolled up, it is called a bandage or roller. When rolled from both ends, and the two heads meet in the centre, the bandage is called a _double-headed roller_. _Compound bandages_ are those where several pieces are sewn together in different forms or shapes, as in the more simple one of the letter T, or when the bandage is torn at the end into several strips, in which case it is called a many-tailed bandage. The _handkerchief bandage_ is very useful to retain light dressings on the head, or to cover and keep in position bags of ice, or cold applications, where evaporation is not required. For this purpose, take a large silk handkerchief, throw it over the head and face, carry the back ends under the chin, and tie them securely; then neatly fold back the loose portion over the face, and making the fold grip the forehead, lead the ends to the nape of the neck, and there crossing, secure them in front of the throat. In applying a simple bandage to the leg or arm, the envelopment of the limb must commence with the foot or hand, and requires to be performed with neatness and regularity, for, if the pressure or tightness is greater in one part than another, the limb will become unevenly marked by swollen and contracted ridges, causing both pain and mischief. Having carefully made a beginning by passing the roller a few times round the foot or hand, making every revolution cover a third of the former, it is in the same order carried up the limb from hand to hand, providing for the increasing size of the part by making a fold of the bandage; turning it sharply back on itself, and laying it smoothly down, each succeeding fold being made in the same line; when the whole limb is enveloped, either pin or sew the end to the fold beneath, or split the end of the bandage, and tie in a knot.