During the war we were confronted with numerous compound exposed fractures that needed continuous traction, and traction was made exceedingly difficult in many cases for two reasons: The skin was badly inflamed, being traumatized in most cases so that the areas of healthy skin to which to stick the plaster were very scanty, and this was aggravated by the fact that some of the wounds, being badly infected, had an abundant secretion that would soak the plaster and diminish its sticking qualities. Also, the adhesive plaster was at times of very poor quality.
We resorted to a simple plan, which can be employed easily and conveniently in all cases requiring medication with adhesive plaster. We took the common rubber cement that is used in patching tires, diluted it in about ten parts of ether, and painted the area of skin on which we intended to apply the plaster with it