side by pillows or cushions until a
surgeon can be obtained. (See Thigh-bone Fracture.)

=THIGH-BONE FRACTURE.=

_First Aid Rule.--Prepare long piece of thin board which will reach
from armpit to ankle, and another piece long enough to reach from
crotch to knee, and pad each with folded towels or blanket._

_While one assistant holds body back, and another assistant pulls on
ankle of injured side, see that the fragments are separated and
brought into good line, and then apply the splints, assistants still
pulling steadily, and fasten the splints in place with bandage, or by
tying several cloths across at three places above the knee and two
places below the knee._

_Finally, pass a wide band of cloth about the body, from armpit to
hips, inclosing the upper part of the well-padded splint, and fasten
it snugly. The hollow between splint and waist must be filled with
padding before this wide cloth is applied._

In fracture of the thigh bone (between the hip and knee), there is
often great swelling about the break. The limb is helpless and
useless. There is intense pain and abnormal position in the injured
part, besides deformity produced by the swelling. The foot of the
injured limb is turned over to one side or the other, owing to a
rolling over of the portion of the limb below the break. With both
lower limbs in line with the body, and the patient lying on the back,
measurements are made from each hip-bone to the prominence on the
inside of either ankle joint. Shortening of the injured leg will be
found, varying from one to over two inches, according to the
overlapping and displacement of the fragments.

=Treatment.=--To set this fracture temporarily, a board about five
inches wide and long enough to reach from the armpit to the foot
should be padded well with towels, sheets, shawls, coats, blanket, or
whatever is at hand, and the padding can best be kept in place by
surgeon's adhesive plaster, bicycle tape, or strips of cloth.[8]
Another splint should be provided as wide as the thigh and long enough
to reach along the back of the leg from the middle of the calf to the
buttock, and also padded in the same way. A third splint should be
prepared in the same manner to go inside the leg, reaching from the
crotch to the inside of the foot. Still a fourth splint made of a thin
board as wide as the thigh, extending from the upper part of the thigh
to just above the knee, is padded for application to the front of the
t