IMPROVEMENTS IN SPLINTS FOR SURGICAL PURPoses
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Hippolyte Guillery, of Brussels, in the Kingdom
of Belguim, Doctor of Medicine, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN SPLINTS FOR SURGICAL PURPoses."
Sealed the 2nd October 1874, and dated the 25th April 1874.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Hippolyte Guillery
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 25th April 1874.
I, HIPPOLYTE GUILLERY, of Brussels in the Kingdom of Belgium.
Doctor of Medicine, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN SPLINTS FOR SURGICAL PURPOSES," to be as follows:-
My Invention relates to improvements in splints for surgical purposes,
such as the setting of fractured bones, and it consists in making the said
splints from sheets of zinc stamped so as to take the exact form of that
portion of a member or part of the human body to which the said splints
arc to be applied.

page_text: In applying the said splints to a fractured leg, the bone having been
set, the said splints, the inner surface of which may if necessary be
covered with a sheet of wadding, are methodically applied to the leg,
and are maintained in position by a leather strap or simply by cords.
The strength of the said splints is not effected by a hemorrhage or the
application to the injured member of any hemostatic or refrigerating
liquid. They may be perforated with any suitable number of holes to
let out perspiration, blood, pus, or any medicamental liquid. When the
member has to be examined or dressed each of the splints is removed
successively whilst the member is held by the remaining splint.
The process herein-before described for making splints according to
my Invention for a broken leg is applicable also to making splints for
broken arms and for fractured bones whatever be the part of the human
body where the fracture occurs.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Hippolyte Guillery in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 24th October 1874.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HIPPOLYTE
GUILLERY, of Brussels, in the Kingdom of Belgium, Doctor of Medicine,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fifth day of April, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in the thirty-
soventh year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Hippolyte Guillery, Her special licence
that I, the said Hippolyte Guillery, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Hippolyte Guillery, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no
others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the term
therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the
Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for IMPROVEMENTS IN
SPLINTS FOR SURGICAL PURPOSES," upon the condition (amongst others) that
I, the said Hippolyte Guillery, my executors, or administrators, by an
"

page_text: instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and
seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said
Invention, and in what manner the same was to be performed, and
cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Hippolyte Guillery, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement thereof, that is to say :-
The essential feature of my Invention is the manufacture of splints
by compression between two surfaces which have been moulded from a
limb corresponding in size and dimensions to that for which the splints
are required.
rd
In order to make the Invention understood I will suppose it is desired
to make zinc splints for the broken leg of a man of medium stature. A
moulder takes by means of plaster mixed with water a cast from the leg
of a well proportioned man of the height indicated. Into this cast he
runs plaster mixed with water, and he thereby obtains the reproduction
of the leg which serves as the model. The surgeon marks in pencil on
this plaster leg the splints which he wishes to obtain; they will be
an inside and an outside splint, or a front and a back splint, according to
circumstances. He makes the corresponding edges so that they may be
from 1 to 3th of an inch apart. The plaster leg is then sent to an iron-
founder; he moulds and casts it in iron, and this iron leg will serve as a
mandrel or former. Then he casts in iron that part of his mould which
corresponds with the marks made by the surgeon, and he thus obtains
the hollow mould of the splint. The ironfounder therefore obtains two
surfaces, one of them convex which corresponds with the inner surface
of the splint, and the other concave which corresponds with the outer
Eurface. These pieces are sent to a zineworker; he takes a sheet of
zinc which he renders more ductile by heat; he compresses it between
the two concave and convex surfaces and thus obtains a pressed splint,
the forms and dimensions of which are exactly those of the model limb.
The second splint is made in the same manner, and so on for all the
limbs of the human body.
It is evident that these splints will produce as many duplicates or
copies as may be desired. Several other substances, felt, leather, and

page_text: gutta percha, for example, may be pressed like the zinc. The zinc splints
which appear to me preferable preserve their solidity notwithstanding
hemorrhage or the application to the injured limb of hemostatic, cooling,
healing, or other liquid. They may be perforated with any number of
holes that may be considered suitable to give passage to exhalation,
suppuration, or healing liquid.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim, the
improved surgical splints manufactured in the manner substantially as
herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Hippolyte Guillery, have hereunto
set my hand and scal, this Fifteenth day of October One thousand