The Seaman's Medical Instructor: In a Course of Lectures on Accidents and Diseases Incident to SeamenFalck, N. D. (Nikolai Detlef)
Science
The Seaman's Medical Instructor: In a Course of Lectures on Accidents and Diseases Incident to Seamen
Falck, N. D. (Nikolai Detlef)
First aid in illness and injury -- Early works to 1800; Medicine, Popular -- Early works to 1800
This limb requires a very long bandage, and very large splints. The
method of treatment must be as before, and the patient must be well
secured in bed. He should not lie constantly upon his back in a straight
posture, as formerly was practised; but most part upon either side, with
his knee bent, which should be kept bent as much as possible; if he can
lay chiefly upon his sick side, so much the better; he may also move a
little his joints, in order to prevent them from growing stiff.
_A fractured Leg._
This accident is more common, and therefore ought to be paid the
greatest attention to.
To know for certain whether the leg is fractured, let the patient lay on
his back or on either side, with his leg and thigh bent, so that the
muscles are entirely at ease, and out of action. Let an assistant hold
up the leg by the knee; then take with one hand the ancle, with the
other the middle of the leg, and move the ancle to and fro, holding the
other hand steady, and if you feel a crackling, and the patient feels
great pain in those parts, the leg is certainly fractured; particularly
if the patient could not stand upon it before. This being fully
discovered, we must next examine which bone is fractured, the _Tibia_ or
_Fibula_; and then proceed in the following manner.
Let the patient lie as before directed; one assistant holding the knee
in a bent position, another holding the leg near the foot, both
gradually extending.
Then with both your hands reduce the fracture, by gently pressing it
with the palm of your hand while it is extending. Then lay on a long
roller; or, what is still better, a many-tailed bandage, which is made
thus: Take nine or ten slips of linen, about two inches broad,
increasing from twelve to twenty inches in length, laying over each
other about half an inch. The whole bandage must be secured with a slip
of linen behind, so as to make the breadth of the bandage the length of
the leg; either of these must be previously wrung out in camphor
spirits.
If you make use of the roller, begin laying it on from the ancle, going
gradually upwards, folding each round over half an inch at a time; and
under the calf of the leg, give the bandage a single twist, by which it
will always suit. Continue this till the whole is finished.
Over this again put a compress, and then put on the splints, (previously
bolstered with some tow) which secure with tape, as before observed with
the fracture of the arm.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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