The Frenche chirurgerye, or all the manualle operations of chirurgerye , vvith divers, & sundrye figures, and amongst the rest, certayne nuefovvnde instrumentes, verye necessarye to all the operationes of chirurgerye. Through Iaques Guillemeau, of Orleans ordinarye chirurgiane to the Kinge, and sworen in the citye of Paris. And novv truelye translated out of Dutch into Englishe by A.M.

❧How we shall dresse the broken Armes, hippes, and legges. Chap. 5.

* 1.1AL thoughe that our common practise, of the dressinge of all broken Legges, seemeth to be alienate, and to differ, from the manner of doinge, of the anti∣que, & auncient professors, & Chyrurgiās, it is notvvithstanding in such sor∣te, that vve easyly can compare them together. All the auncient physitions, & Chyrurgianes, have binne of opiniō that in the Fractures vve ought to vse a dubble kinde of Ligament: Na∣melye inferiore ligamentes, vvhich they called Hypodesmidas, & superior ligatures, vvhich they called Hypodesmous: they have these names be∣cause of their situatione, because some of them are tyed, and bovvnd vnder & some agayn abo∣ve. And as touchinge the inferioure ligamētes, Hippocrates maketh mention of tvvo sortes.

* 1.2VVherof the first, & the shortest, beginneth one the fracture, layinge alvvayes the one end contradictorilye therone because it should not vvholy lye, on the place of the payn, vvhich li∣gament must be tyed round about the fracture, & then be reduced vpvvardes, vvhere he as thē endeth: This ligament must closelye be vvoun∣de together, because so the fluxiō, vvhich might chaūce to sincke into the disseased parte, might the better be kept therout. The seconde liga∣ment, vvhich allmost, must be as longe agayne as the first, is allso begunne one the same man∣ner, to vvitt, on the fracture, layinge onlye ther∣one, a turne, or tvvo, vvinding dovvnevvardes, to crushe therout the bloode vvhich might chaunce to sincke into the fracture, vvith cir∣cumvolutiōs, vvhich must be layed a little mo∣re a parte the one frō the other, then in the first ligament they vveare: for vve must take heede of makinge to greate expressiones of bloode, in the endes of the Armes, or legges, that vvithout imflammatiō they can not receave much ther∣of, and the ligament being come dovvne, must vvinde the same vpvvardes agayne, to come a∣gayn to that place vvher vve did beginn, becau∣se both these ligamentes might hould fast, and the muscles be brought into theire naturall si∣tuation, vvhich through the tvvo formost liga∣tiones might be brought therout.

* 1.3Other auncient Chyrurgianes make of this nethermost ligature, tvvo ligationes, vvherof the one is the surest the seconde for the fractu∣res, vvhich beginneth one the brokē parte: ha∣ving therafter, made one, or tvvo circumvolu∣tiones, then is the foresaved ligature reduced dovvnevvardes. The other vvhich may be the thirde for the fractures, must be begunne, on the beginning of the parte, endinge supernally vvher the first ligatiō is ended passing over the Fracture: Soe that they impose therone thre li∣gationes all vvhich three vve may call inferior ligamētes. The first vvhich ascendeth from the fracture one highe, as from the middle of the legge tovvarde the knee. The seconde vvhich descēdeth from the fracture dovvnevvardes, as from the middle of the legg tovvardes the foo∣te. The third, vvhich from the extreameste part of the Ioyncte, ascendeth superiorlye as frō the the soule of the foote tovvardes the knees.

But novveadayes & folovving our common practise,* 1.4 vvhich vve vse before these three liga∣mentes, vve applye first of all, one the place of the fracture an astringent Plaster, vvhich is ma∣de of Bolus, of flovver, or volatill meale, of vvhy∣tes of Egges, of Oyle of Roses & of a little Tere∣bentine, (in steade of Cerotū Galeni, vvhich the aunciēt Chyrurgians vsed:) After the first dres∣sing vve vse the Plaster of Diacalcitheos, or of Di∣apalma, liquefacted in oyle of Roses, vvith vi∣neger. The ligature novv being decētly vvoūd, because the legges, the hippes & the Armes, are thinner belovve then above they are, vve must therfore one such slendernes apply some certayn cōpresses because the foresayed ioync∣te may be in all places of an aequall crassitude, & thickenes, & the splinter, vvhich must be ma∣de of stiffe paper, of lattinn, or of any other sub∣stance, be verye evenlye, & smoothlye applyed therone, & tyed vnder the inferior ligatures, or rovvlers.

These splinters must be three in numbre, vvhich must be excavated like a gutter, vvherof the first must be a little broader, then the other to by applyed vnder the fracture, & to comprae∣hende all that, vvhich is belovve the fracture, & be as it vveare a fundament, or foundatiō ther∣vnto. The other tvvo one both the sydes of the fracture, being somvvhat separated the one frō the other, least that in the ligatiō they chaūced to glide the one over the other. They must also be of such a longitude, as the broken parte re∣quireth.

These thre foresayed splintes being thus im∣posed, one the inferior rovvlers,* 1.5 vve must then tye the fracture that it may lye fast and steadye & the part be cōtayned in a goode quallitye & disposione. VVith the first of these tvvo ligatu∣res, vve must beginn, at the extreamest parte of the membre, frō vnder vpvvardes. The seconde must beginn frō above & end belovv: vve must allsoe note that the one of those rovvlers, must take his beginninge internally in the membre, & must proceed from the left to the right syde, becaus they may crosse the one over the other, in such a forme as in the margine you may see, or in forme of a S^t. Andrevves Crosse, because it may be involved verye closelye theron.

It seemeth that Hippocrates hath vsed noe o∣ther ligature, in the Fractures vvith vvounde, but that he rovvled the same somvvhat loose.

* 1.6But in those fractures vvhich vveare shott, or vvith anye other such like instrument, or engi∣ne, be done, vvherin is great crushinge of bo∣nes, because vve should little neede to handle this parte, vvhich is thus broken, and crushed, least the acute, and sharpe ossicles, or bones, & frustles, the vvhich in the pertractatione of the same, might chaunce to pricke the Flo••he, Tē∣dones, Synnues & the Peritoneum, vve must ther fore vse heervnto great Cōpresses, beinge foul∣ded three, or foure on the other, and soe sovved together in the midle, beinge in tvvo places cut throughe, the compresse beinge of the bredth of a palme, of ones hāde, or theraboute, vvhich vve revolve the one tovvardes the other parte, as if vve desired to circumligate the parte. The∣se, or such like Compresses, vve must by little & little shove vnder the crushed parte, or mē∣bre: & the same being immūdifyed, & impure, and vve desire to lay an other thervnder, vve as then sovve a cleane vvhite Compresse, one the impured Compresse, & as then vve dravv avvay the impure compresse from vnder the Fracture & then subseqvētly follovveth the mundifyed, & cleane compresse thervnder, in the steade of the immundifyed. I have constituted the defi∣guratione, of these Compresses, heere before a∣mongest the figures of the Instrumentes, in the table of the Glossocomium, vvhich of Hippocratis is called Ambi, on vvhich place, & in the forsay∣ed leafe, is defigured vnto you, a broken legge, vvith the Ligamentes of the same.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Our mā∣ner of dressinge of al bro∣kē legges may be assimila∣ted, and compa∣ted, vvith the man∣ner of the auncient Chyrur∣gianes.
• * 1.2

  Tvvo sor∣tes of in∣ferior, or vnderli¦gamētes.
• * 1.3

  Subdivi∣siō of the seconde inferior ligature.
• * 1.4

  An astrin∣gent pla∣ster on the frac∣ture.
• * 1.5

  Applyca∣tione of the infe∣rior Li∣gatures.
• * 1.6

  Ligamē∣tes for shott vvoūdes, vvith crushing of bones.