Barkham Burroughs' Encyclopaedia of Astounding Facts and Useful Information Part 28

HENBANE OR HYOSCYAMUS.--Symptoms: Muscular twitching, inability to articulate plainly, dimness of vision and stupor; later, vomiting and purging, small, intermittent pulse, convulsive movement of the extremities and coma. Treatment: Similar to Opium Poisoning, which see.

IODINE.--Symptoms: Burning pain in throat, lacerating pain in the stomach, fruitless effort to vomit, excessive tenderness of the epigastrium. Treatment: Free emesis, prompt administration of starch, wheat flour, or arrowroot, beat up in water.

LEAD.--ACETATE OF LEAD, SUGAR OF LEAD, DRY WHITE LEAD, RED LEAD, LITHARGE, OR PICKLES, WINE, OR VINEGAR, SWEETENED BY LEAD.--Symptoms: When taken in large doses, a sweet but astringent metallic taste exists, with constriction in the throat, pain in the region of the stomach, painful, obstinate, and frequently b.l.o.o.d.y vomitings, hiccough, convulsions or spasms, and death. When taken in small but long-continued doses, it produces colic, called painter's colic; great pain, obstinate constipation, and in extreme cases paralytic, symptoms, especially wrist-drop, with a blue line along the edge of the gums. Treatment: To counteract the poison, give alum in water, one and a half ounce to a quart; or, better still, Epsom salts or Glauber salts, an ounce of either in a quart of water; or dilute sulphuric acid, a teaspoonful in a quart of water. If a large quant.i.ty of sugar of lead has been recently taken, empty the stomach by an emetic of sulphate of zinc (one drachm in a quart of water), giving one-fourth to commence, and repeating smaller doses until free vomiting is produced; castor oil should be given to clear the bowels, and injections of oil and starch freely administered.

If the body is cold, use the warm bath.

MEADOW SAFFRON.--See Belladonna.

LAUDANUM.--See Opium.

LUNAR CAUSTIC.--See Silver.

LOBELIA.--Indian Poke.--Symptoms: Excessive vomiting and purging, pains in the bowels, contraction of the pupils, delirium, coma, and convulsions. Treatment: Mustard over the stomach, and brandy and ammonia.

MERCURY.--CORROSIVE SUBLIMATE (bug poisons frequently contain this poison), RED PRECIPITATE, CHINESE OR ENGLISH VERMILLION.--Symptoms: Acrid, metallic taste in the mouth, immediate constriction and burning in the throat, with anxiety and tearing pains in both stomach and bowels, sickness, and vomiting of various colored fluids, and sometimes b.l.o.o.d.y and profuse diarrhoea, with difficulty and pain in urinating; pulse quick, small and hard; faint sensations, great debility, difficult breathing, cramps, cold sweats, syncope and convulsions. Treatment: If vomiting does not already exist, emetics must be given immediately--alb.u.men of eggs in continuous large doses, and infusion of catechu afterwards, sweet milk, mixtures of flour and water in successive cupfuls, and to check excessive salivation put a half ounce of chlorate of potash in a tumbler of water, and use freely as a gargle, and swallow a tablespoonful every hour or two.

MONKSHOOD.--See Arnica.

MORPHINE.--See Opium.

NITRATE OF SILVER (LUNAR CAUSTIC.)--Symptoms: Intense pain and vomiting and purging of blood; mucus and shreds of mucus membranes; and if these stand they become dark. Treatment: Give freely of a solution of common salt in water, which decomposes the poison, and afterwards flax-seed or elm bark tea, and after a while a dose of castor oil.

NUX VOMICA.--See Strychnine.

OPIUM AND ALL ITS PREPARATIONS--MORPHINE, LAUDANUM, PAREGORIC, ETC.--Symptoms: Giddiness, drowsiness, increasing to stupor, and insensibility; pulse usually, at first, quirk and irregular, and breathing hurried, and afterwards pulse slow and feeble, and respiration slow and noisy; the pupils are contracted and the eyes and face congested, and later, as death approaches, the extremities become cold, the surface is covered with cold, clammy perspiration, and the sphincters relax. The effects of opium and its preparations, in poisonous doses, appear in from a half to two hours from its administration. Treatment: Empty the stomach immediately with an emetic or with the stomach pump. Then give very strong coffee without milk; put mustard plasters on the wrist and ankles; use the cold douche to the head and chest, and if the patient is cold and sinking give brandy, or whisky and ammonia. Belladonna is thought by many to counteract the poisonous effects of opium, and may be given in doses of half to a teaspoonful of the tincture, or two grains of the extract, every twenty minutes, until some effect is observed in causing the pupils to expand. Use warmth and friction, and if possible prevent sleep for some hours, for which purpose the patient should be walked about between two persons, and if necessary a bunch of switches may be freely used. Finally, as a last resort, use artificial respiration, and a persistance in it will sometimes be rewarded with success in apparently hopeless cases. Galvanism should also be tried.

OXALIC ACID.--See Acids.

PHOSPHORUS--FOUND IN LUCIFER MATCHES AND SOME RAT POISONS.--Symptoms: Symptoms of irritant poisoning; pain in the stomach and bowels; vomiting; diarrhoea; tenderness and tension of the abdomen. Treatment: An emetic is to be promptly given; copious draughts containing magnesia in suspension: mucilaginous drinks. General treatment for inflammatory symptoms.

POISONOUS FISH.--Symptoms: In an hour or two--often in much shorter time--after the fish has been eaten, a weight at the stomach comes on, with slight vertigo and headache; sense of heat about the head and eyes; considerable thirst, and often an eruption of the skin.

Treatment: After full vomiting, an active purgative should be given to remove any of the noxious matter from the intestines. Vinegar and water may be drunk after the above remedies have operated, and the body may be sponged with the same. Water made very sweet with sugar, with aromatic spirits of ammonia added, may be drunk freely as a corrective. A solution of cholorate of potash, or of alkali, the latter weak, may be given to obviate the effect of the poison. If spasms ensue after evacuation, laudanum in considerable doses it necessary. If inflammation should occur, combat in the usual way.

POISONOUS MUSHROOMS.--- Symptoms: Nausea, heat and pains in the stomach and bowels; vomiting and purging, thirst, convulsions and faintings, pulse small and frequent, dilated pupil and stupor, cold sweats and death.

Treatment: The stomach and bowels are to be cleared by an emetic of ground mustard or sulphate of zinc, followed by frequent doses of Glauber of Epsom salts, and large stimulating clysters. After the poison is evacuated, either may be given with small quant.i.ties of brandy and water. But if inflammatory symptoms manifest themselves, such stimuli should be avoided, and these symptoms appropriately treated.

POTASH.--See Alkali.

PRUSSIC ACID, HYDROCYANIC.--See Acids.

POISON IVY.--Symptoms. Contact with, and with many persons the near approach to the vine, gives rise to violent erysipelatous inflammation, especially of the face and hands, attended with itching, redness, burning and swelling, with watery blisters.

Treatment: Give saline laxatives, and apply weak lead and laudanum, or limewater and sweet oil, or bathe the parts freely with spirits of nitre. Anointing with oil will prevent poisoning from it.

SALTPETRE, NITRATE OF POTASH.--Symptoms. Only poisonous in large quant.i.ties, and then causes nausea, painful vomiting, purging, convulsions, faintness, feeble pulse, cold feet and hands, with tearing pains in stomach and bowels.

Treatment: Treat just as is directed for a.r.s.enic, for there is no antidote known, and emptying the stomach and bowels with mild drinks must be relied on.

SAVINE.--Symptoms: Sharp pains in the bowels, hot skin, rapid pulse, violent vomiting and sometimes purging, with great prostration.

Treatment: Mustard and hot fomentations over the stomach and bowels, and ice only allowed in the stomach until the inflammation ceases. If prostration comes on, food and stimulants must be given by injection.

STRAMONIUM, THORN-APPLE OR JAMESTOWN WEED.--Symptoms: Vertigo, headache, perversion of vision, slight delirium, sense of suffocation, disposition to sleep, bowels relaxed and all secretions augmented.

Treatment: Same as Belladonna.

STRYCHNINE AND NUX VOMICA.--Symptoms: Muscular twitching, constriction of the throat, difficult breathing and oppression of the chest; violent muscular spasms then occur, continuous in character like lock-jaw, with the body bent backwards, sometimes like a bow. Treatment: Give, if obtainable, one ounce or more of bone charcoal mixed with water, and follow with an active emetic; then give chloroform in teaspoonful doses, in flour and water or glycerine, every few minutes while the spasms last, and afterwards brandy and stimulants, and warmth of the extremities if necessary. Recoveries have followed the free and prompt administration of oils or melted b.u.t.ter or lard. In all cases empty the stomach if possible.

SULPHATE OF ZINC, WHITE VITRIOL.--See Zinc.

TIN--CHLORIDE OF TIN, SOLUTION OF TIN (USED BY DYERS), OXIDE OF TIN OR PUTTY POWDER.--Symptoms: Vomiting, pains in the stomach, anxiety, restlessness, frequent pulse, delirium, etc. Treatment: Empty the stomach, and give whites of eggs in water, milk in large quant.i.ties, or flour beaten, up in water, with magnesia or chalk.

TARTAR EMETIC.--See Antimony.

TOBACCO.--Symptoms: Vertigo, stupor, fainting, nausea, vomiting, sudden nervous debility, cold sweat, tremors, and at times fatal prostration. Treatment: After the stomach is empty apply mustard to the abdomen and to the extremities, and give strong coffee, with brandy and other stimulants, with warmth to the extremities.

ZINC--OXIDE OF ZINC, SULPHATE OF ZINC, WHITE VITRIOL, ACETATE OF ZINC.--Symptoms: Violent vomiting, astringent taste, burning pain in the stomach, pale countenance, cold extremities, dull eyes, fluttering pulse. Death seldom ensues, in consequence of the emetic effect.

Treatment: The vomiting may be relieved by copious draughts of warm water. Carbonate of soda, administered in solution, will decompose the sulphate of zinc. Milk and alb.u.men will also act as antidotes. General principles to be observed in the subsequent treatment.

WOORARA.--Symptoms: When taken into the stomach it is inert; when absorbed through a wound it causes sudden stupor and insensibility, frothing at the mouth and speedy death. Treatment: Suck the wound immediately, or cut it out and tie a cord around the limb between the wound and the heart. Apply iodine, or iodide of pota.s.sium, and give it internally, and try artificial respiration.

SCALDS.--See Burns and Scalds.

SPRAINS.--The portions most frequently implicated are the wrist and ankle; no matter which portion it may be, however, rest and quietness is a very important part of the treatment, and, when possible, in an elevated position. If the wrist is sprained it should be carried in a sling; if the ankle, it should be supported on a couch or stool. Cold lotions (see Bruises) should be freely applied, and irrigation by pouring water from a pitcher or tea-kettle resorted to several times a day to prevent inflammation. Later, frictions with opodeldoc, or with some stimulating liniment, and supporting the parts by pressure made with a flannel roller, or laced stocking when the ankle is involved, will be useful to restore tone; or strips of adhesive plaster properly applied will be useful for the same purpose. Recovery from severe sprains is always tedious. It is an old saying "that a bad sprain is worse than a broken bone."

STINGS OF BEES AND WASPS.--See Bites and Stings.

SUFFOCATION FROM NOXIOUS GASES, FOUL AIR, FIRE DAMP, ETC.--Remove to fresh air and dash cold water over the head, neck and chest; carefully apply hartshorn, or smelling salts to the nostrils, and when the breathing is feeble or has ceased, resort immediately to artificial respiration (see Asphyxia and Drowning). Keep up the warmth of the body, and as soon as the patient can swallow give stimulants in small quant.i.ties.

SUNSTROKE.--This is caused by long exposure in great heat, especially when accompanied with great fatigue and exhaustion. Though generally happening from exposure to the sun's rays, yet precisely similar effects may be and are produced from any undue exposure to great and exhaustive heat, such as workmen are exposed to in foundries, gas factories, bakeries, and other similar employments. Its first symptom is pain in the head and dizziness, quickly followed by loss of consciousness, and resulting in complete prostration: sometimes, however, the attack is sudden, as in apoplexy. The head is generally burning hot, the face, dark and swollen, the breathing labored and snoring, and the feet and hands cold. Remove the patient at once to a cool and shady place, and lay him down with his head a little raised; apply ice or iced water to the head and face; loosen all cloths around the neck or waist; bathe the chest with cold water, apply mustard plasters, or cloths wetted with turpentine, to the calves and soles of the feet, and as soon as the patient can swallow, give weak brandy or whisky and water.

There is no easy road to success--I Thank G.o.d for it ... .

A trained man will make his life tall. Without training, you are left on a sea of luck, where thousands go down, while one meets with success.

JAMES A. GARFIELD.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE FAMILY PHYSICIAN]

THE FAMILY PHYSICIAN

The following receipts written by DR. J. H. Gunn will be found of great value, especially in emergencies:

ASTHMA.--Take hyssop water and poppy water, of each ten ounces; oxymel of squills, six ounces; syrup of maiden hair, two ounces. Take one spoonful when you find any difficulty in breathing.

AGUE IN THE BREAST.--Take one part of gum camphor, two parts yellow bees-wax, three parts clean lard; let all melt slowly, in any vessel [earthen best], on stove. Use either cold or warm; spread very thinly on cotton or linen cloths, covering those with flannel. No matter if the breast is broken, it will cure if persevered in. Do not, no matter how painful, cease from drawing milk from the breast that is affected.

AGUE, MIXTURE.--Mix twenty grains quinine with one pint diluted gin or port wine, and add ten grains subcarbonate of iron. Dose, a wine-gla.s.s each hour until the ague is broken, and then two or three times a day until the whole has been used.