| [p. 244]to be carried round the shoulders, and afterward
the ends of the thong are to be fastened to a piece of wood resembling
a pestle; they are to be adapted to the length of the bench laid below
the patient, and so that the pestle-like piece of wood resting against
this bench may make extension. Another such band is to be applied
above the knees and the ankles, and the ends of the thongs fastened
to a similar piece of wood; and another thong, broad, soft, and strong,
in the form of a swathe, having breadth and length sufficient, is
to be bound tightly round the loins, as near the hips as possible;
and then what remains of this swathelike thong, with the ends of the
thongs, must be fastened to the piece of wood placed at the patient's
feet, and extension in this fashion is to be made upward and downward,
equally and at the same time, in a straight line. For extension thus
made could do no harm, if properly performed, unless one sought to
do mischief purposely. But the physicians, or some person who is strong,
and not uninstructed, should apply the palm of one hand to the hump,
and then, having laid the other hand upon the former, he should make
pressure, attending whether this force should be applied directly
downward, or toward the head, or toward the hips. This method of applying
force is particularly safe; and it is also safe for a person to sit
upon the hump while extension is made, and raising himself up, to
let himself fall again upon the patient. And there is nothing to prevent
a person from placing a foot on the hump, and supporting his weight
on it, and making gentle pressure; one of the men who is practiced
in the palestra would be a proper person for doing this in a suitable
manner. But the most powerful of the mechanical means is this: if
the hole in the wall, or in the piece of wood fastened into the ground,
be made as much below the man's back as may be judged proper, and
if a board, made of limetree, or any other wood, and not too narrow,
be put into the hole, then a rag, folded several times or a small
leather cushion, should be laid on the hump; nothing large, however,
should be laid on the back, but just as much as may prevent the board
from giving unnecessary pain by its hardness; but the hump should
be as much as possible on a line with the hole made in the wall, so
that the board introduced into it may
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