shortening of
the broken member from overlapping of the fragments is a sure sign.

=SPECIAL FRACTURES.=

=BROKEN RIB.=--_First Aid Rule.--Patient puts hands on head while
attendant puts adhesive-plaster band, one foot wide, around injured
side from spine over breastbone to line of armpit of sound side. Then
put patient to bed._

A rib is usually broken by direct violence. The symptoms are pain on
taking a deep breath, or on coughing, together with a small, very
tender point. The deformity is not usually great, if, indeed, any
exists, so that nothing in the external appearance may call the
attention to fracture. Grating between the fragments may be heard by
the patient or by the examiner, and the patient can often place his
finger on the exact location of the break.

When it is a matter of doubt whether a rib is broken or not the
treatment for broken rib should be followed for relief of pain.

[Illustration: FIG. 8.

METHOD OF BANDAGING BROKEN RIB (SCUDDER).

Note manner of sticking one end of wide adhesive plaster along
backbone; also assistant carrying strip around injured side.]

=Treatment= consists in applying a wide band of surgeon's adhesive
plaster, to be obtained at any drug shop. The band is made by
overlapping strips four or five inches wide, till a width of one foot
is obtained. This is then applied by sticking one end along the back
bone and carrying it forward around the injured side of the chest over
the breastbone as far as a line below the armpit on the uninjured side
of the chest, i. e., three-quarters way about the chest. These four-
or five-inch strips of plaster may be cut the right length first and
laid together, overlapping about two inches, and put on as a whole,
or, what is easier, each strip may be put on separately, beginning at
the spine, five inches below the fracture, and continuing to apply the
strips, overlapping each other about two inches, until the band is
made to extend to about five inches above the point of fracture, all
the strips ending in the line of the armpit of the uninjured side.
(Fig. 8.)

If surgeon's plaster cannot be obtained, a strong unbleached cotton or
flannel bandage, a foot wide, should be placed all around the chest
and fastened as snugly as possible with safety pins, in order to limit
the motion of the chest wall. The patient will often be more
comfortable sitting up, and should take care not to be exposed to cold
or wet for some weeks, as pleurisy or