SPLINTS, iu surgery, are certain mechanical contrivances for keeping a fractured limb in its proper position, and for preventing any motion of the fractured ends: they are also employed for securing perfect immobility of the parts to which they are applied ill other eases, as in diseased joints, after resection of joints, etc. – Ordinary splints are composed of wood carved to the shape of the limb, and padded; the best pads being made out of old blankets, which should be cut into strips long and wide enough to line the splints, and laid in sufficient number upon one another to give the requisite softness. The splints should be firmly bound to the previously bandaged limb with pieces of bandage, or with straps and buckles; care being taken that they are put on sufficiently tight to keep the parts immovable, and to prevent muscular spasm, but not so tight as to induce discomfort. Gotta percha, sole-leather, or pasteboard, after having been softened in boiling water, may in some cases advantageously take the place of wooden splints. They must be applied when soft to the part they are intended to support, so as to take a perfect mold, and then be dried, stiffened, and, if necessary, lined. An account of the more complicated kinds of splint required in certain cases, as Macintyre's splint, Liston's splint, etc., may be seen in any illustrated catalogue of Surgical instruments.
The ordinary splint is now to a great degree super§eded by immovable bandages, which consist of the ordinary bandage saturated with a thick mucilage of starch, or with a strong solution of a mixture of powdered gum-arabic and precipitated chalk, which, when dry, Rim a remarkably light but firm support. As, however, these bandages
require some hours to dry and become rigid, means must be used to counteract any dis placement of the limb in the interval. On this account, many surgeons prefer the plas ter of Paris or gypsum bandage, which is applied in the following manner: the limb being protected by a layer of cotton-wool, a bandage composed of coarse and open material, into which as much dry powdered gypsum as possible has been rubbed, must be immersed in water for about a minute, and then rolled around the limb _in a spiral manner, just as an ordinary bandage; after every second or third turn of the bandage, the left hand of the surgeon should be plunged into water, and smeared over the part last applied. When the whole has been thus treated, the exterior of the bandage should be smeared over with a paste of gypsum and water until a smooth surface and com plete rigidity have been attained—a process not occupying more than 10 minutes or a quarter of an hour. In a case of simple fracture, where no surgical aid is at hand, any non-professional person of ordinary intelligence might apply this bandage, extreme care being taken that the ends of the broken bone are in their proper position.