The Early Days of Splints and Splinting

Abstract

There can be little doubt that fractures and wounds would have been among the first problems that the healers within primitive communities would have been called upon to treat. Indeed, this has been amply confirmed by anthropologists and archaeologists. The Australian aboriginals seem to have taken the adage ‘splint the patient where he lies' quite literally. Early observers saw the relatives take it in turns simply to hold the injured leg still until union occurred, a shelter being erected over the patient and his succession of ‘human splints'. The excavation of ancient Egyptian burial sites by Sir Grafton Elliot Smith in the early years of the 20th century revealed fractures of some 5000 years ago, bound up in splints of bark, wrapped in linen and held by bandages. Where the fractures were compound, dressings of vegetable fibre were used to plug the wound and some still showed traces of 50 century old blood!