What should be the dressings and compresses?

The rags for dressings must be clean, because dirt is hard and causes pain, thin so as to let through what is smeared on them, and light so as not to burden the diseased organ. The bandage should cover a fairly significant part of the healthy area, because this better keeps the bone being fused from displacement and gives the bandage greater strength, although this too should not be overdone, so as not to make the pores of the organ narrow and not accepting nutrients. And also the tightening that we recommend squeezes out the fluids pouring out to the diseased organ more strongly, driving them further than this organ, and delays what seeps into it. A wide bandage is better, because it holds tighter and grips more, but the degree of width depends on what is suitable for each given organ - what is possible on the chest is different from what is possible on the arm and on any organ that is not wide. A wide bandage on it is not possible, and if the bandage is widened, it cannot be well placed on such an organ; therefore, for such organs, bandages should be limited to a width of three to four fingers. Such organs are, for example, the flint, the collarbone and the like. Wide bandages on them are impossible, and if you do not bandage them with a narrow bandage, then they cannot even be bandaged at all. You cannot run a wide bandage along the collarbone, and in this case you have to multiply the turns to replace the wide bandage. It is enough that the ribbon that is wrapped around is three or four fingers wide and three cubits long.

Compresses are sometimes wrapped to help the bandage stay in place. There are two types of compresses. Some of them are applied to promote straightening of the organ, and they try to ensure that there are no gaps between the layers of the compress, so that they do not pile up randomly on top of each other and fill the gaps, and the purpose of using other compresses is to secondary straighten the bandage, so that the bandage goes around and stays straight and the splints were not tighter in one place and weaker in another, they also hold well. The first compress, therefore, is intended for bandages and ribbons, and the second is for splints; the lower bandage holds the material, and the second prevents the splints from curling up. Layers of compresses should be thickest at the site of dressing; they should, if possible, be applied where the organ bends, and their number should correspond to the number of bends. Sometimes you have to use small compresses that cover the compress that goes on top of them right along the bandage located at the site of the fracture. A bandage called two-faced and two-headed is used in this way; the middle of the rag, which holds the damaged area in a straight position, is placed on this place so that it is under half of the rag. Then each of the two halves is taken in opposite directions and acted upon, winding it with both hands in a way known to everyone, which does not need explanation.