Gentlemen:—I have frequently conversed with physicians of ability, age and experience, who have never employed and consequently never appreciated the value of silicate of sodium bandage as a permanent dressing in fractures of the long-bones.
Silicate of sodium is a solution of silica and sodium carbonate, containing 20 parts of the former to 10 parts of the latter; it is of a syrupy consistence with a specific gravity of from 1,300 to 1,400; it is also called soluble glass or water glass; it possesses many advantages over starch, dextrine, or plaster of paris, in that it is more easily applied, is more uniform in thickness, is more cleanly, and last but not by any means least, it does not contract on drying as do the others. The mode of application is very simple and easy, a common roller bandage is first applied, the joints and bony prominences being protected by