The Handy Cyclopedia of Things Worth Knowing Part 78

HEMORRHAGE, when caused by an artery being divided or torn, may be known by the blood issuing out of the wound in leaps or jerks, and being of a bright scarlet color. If a vein is injured, the blood is darker and flows continuously. To arrest the latter apply pressure by means of a compress and bandage. To arrest arterial bleeding, get a piece of wood (part of a broom handle will do), and tie a piece of tape to one end of it. Then tie a piece of tape loosely over the arm, and pa.s.s the other end of the wood under it; twist the stick around and around until the tape compresses the arm sufficiently to arrest the bleeding, and then confine the other end by tying the string around the arm. A compress made by enfolding a penny piece in several folds of lint or linen should, however, be first placed under the tape and over the artery, If the bleeding is very obstinate, and it occurs in the arm, place a cork underneath the string, on the inside of the fleshy part, where the artery may be felt beating by any one; if in the leg, place a cork in the direction of a line drawn from the inner part of the knee toward the outer part of the groin. It is an excellent thing to accustom yourself to find out the position of these arteries, or, indeed, any that are superficial, and to explain to every person in your house where they are, and how to stop bleeding. If a stick cannot be got, take a handkerchief, make a cord bandage of it, and tie a knot in the middle; the knot acts as a compress, and should be placed over the artery, while the two ends are c around the thumb. Observe always to place the ligature between the wound and the heart. Putting your finger into a bleeding wound, and making pressure until a surgeon arrives, will generally stop violent bleeding.

BLEEDING FROM THE NOSE, from whatever cause, may generally be stopped by putting a plug of lint into the nostrils; if this does not do, apply a cold lotion to the forehead; raise the head, and place over it both arms, so that it will rest on the hands; dip the lint plug, slightly moistened, into some powdered gum arabic, and plug the nostrils again; or dip the plug into equal parts of powdered gum arabic and alum, and plug the nose. Or the plug may be dipped in Friar's balsam, or tincture of kino. Heat should be applied to the feet; and, in obstinate cases, the sudden shock of a cold key, or cold water poured down the spine, will often instantly stop the bleeding. If the bowels are confined, take a purgative. Injections of alum solution from a small syringe into the nose will often stop hemorrhage.

VIOLENT SHOCKS will sometimes stun a person, and he will remain unconscious. Untie strings, collars, etc.; loosen anything that is tight and interferes with the breathing; raise the head; see if there is bleeding from any part; apply smelling-salts to the nose, and hot bottles to the feet.

IN CONCUSSION, the surface of the body is cold and pale, and the pulse weak and small, the breathing slow and gentle, and the pupil of the eye generally contracted or small. You can get an answer by speaking loud, so as to arouse the patient. Give a little brandy and water, keep the place quiet, apply warmth, and do not raise the head too high. If you tickle the feet, the patient feels it.

IN COMPRESSION OF THE BRAIN from any cause, such as apoplexy, or a piece of fractured bone pressing on it, there is loss of sensation. If you tickle the feet of the injured person he does not feel it. You cannot arouse him so as to get an answer. The pulse is slow and labored; the breathing deep, labored, and snorting; the pupil enlarged. Raise the head, loosen strings or tight things, and send for a surgeon. If one cannot be got at once, apply mustard poultices to the feet and thighs, leeches to the temples, and hot water to the feet.

CHOKING--When a person has a fish bone in the throat, insert the forefinger, press upon the root of the tongue, so as to induce vomiting; if this does not do, let him swallow a large piece of potato or soft bread; and if these fail, give a mustard emetic,

FAINTING, HYSTERICS, ETC.--Loosen the garments, bathe the temples with water or eau-de-Cologne; open the window, admit plenty of fresh air, dash cold water on the face, apply hot bricks to the feet, and avoid bustle and excessive sympathy.

DROWNING.--Attend to the following essential rules: 1. Lose no time. 2.

Handle the body gently. 3. Carry the body face downward, with the head gently raised, and never hold it up by the feet. 4. Send for medical a.s.sistance immediately, and in the meantime act as follows: 5. Strip the body; rub it dry, then wrap it in hot blankets, and place it in a warm bed in a warm room. 6. Cleanse away the froth and mucus from the nose and month. 7. Apply warm bricks, bottles, bags of sand, etc. to the armpits, between the thighs, and to the soles of the feet. 8. Rub the surface of the body with the hands inclosed in warm, dry worsted socks.

9. If possible, put the body into a warm bath. 10. To restore breathing, put the pipe of a common bellows into one nostril, carefully closing the other, and the mouth; at the same time drawing downward, and pushing gently backward, the upper part of the windpipe to allow a more free admission of air; blow the bellows gently, in order to inflate the lungs, till the breast be raised a little; then set the month and nostrils free, and press gently on the chest; repeat this until signs of life appear. The body should be covered the moment it is placed on the table, except the face, and all the rubbing carried on under the sheet or blanket. When they can be obtained, a number of tiles or bricks should be made tolerably hot in the fire, laid in a row on the table, covered with a blanket, and the body placed in such a manner on them that their heat may enter the spine. When the patient revives, apply smelling-salts to the nose, give warm wine or brandy and water.

Cautions.--1. Never rub the body with salt or spirits. 2. Never roll the body on casks. 3. Continue the remedies for twelve hours without ceasing.

HANGING--Loosen the cord, or whatever it may be by which the person has been suspended. Open the temporal artery or jugular vein, or bleed from the arm; employ electricity, if at hand, and proceed as for drowning.

APPARENT DEATH FROM DRUNKENNESS--Raise the head; loosen the clothes, maintain warmth of surface, and give a mustard emetic as soon as the person can swallow.

APOPLEXY AND FITS GENERALLY--Raise the head; loosen all tight clothes, strings, etc.; apply cold lotions to the head, and send for a surgeon.

SUFFOCATION FROM NOXIOUS GASES, ETC.--Remove to the fresh air; dash cold vinegar and water in the face, neck, and breast; keep up the warmth of the body; if necessary, apply mustard poultices to the soles of the feet and to the spine, and try artificial respirations as in drowning, with electricity.

LIGHTNING AND SUNSTROKE--Treat the same as apoplexy.

POISONS AND THEIR ANTIDOTES.

General Rules

Always send immediately for a medical man. Save all fluids vomited, and articles of food, cups, gla.s.ses, etc., used by the patient before taken ill, and lock them up.

As a rule give emetics after poisons that cause sleepiness and raving; chalk, milk, eggs, b.u.t.ter, and warm water, or oil, after poisons that cause vomiting and pain in the stomach and bowels, with purging; and when there is no inflammation about the throat, tickle it with a feather to excite vomiting.

Vomiting may be caused by giving warm water, with a teaspoonful of mustard to the tumblerful, well stirred up. Sulphate of zinc (white vitriol) may be used in place of the mustard, or powdered alum. Powder of ipecacuanha, a teaspoonful rubbed up with mola.s.ses, may be employed for children. Tartar emetic should never be given, as it is excessively depressing, and uncontrollable in its effects. The stomach pump can only be used by skillful hands, and even then with caution.

Opium and other Narcotics--After vomiting has occurred, cold water should be dashed over the face and head. The patient must be kept awake, walked about between two strong persons, made to grasp the handles of a galvanic battery, dosed with strong coffee, and vigorously slapped.

Belladonna is an antidote for opium and for morphia, etc.; its active principles; and, on the other hand, the latter counteract the effects of belladonna. But a knowledge of medicine is necessary for dealing with these articles.

Strychnia--After emetics have been freely and successfully given, the patient should be allowed to breathe the vapor of sulphuric ether, poured on a handkerchief and held to the face, in such quant.i.ties as to keep down the tendency to convulsions. Bromide of pota.s.sium, twenty grains at a dose, dissolved in syrup, may be given every hour.

Alcoholic Poisoning should be combated by emetics, of which the sulphate of zinc, given as above directed, is the best. After that, strong coffee internally, and stimulation by heat externally, should be used.

Acids are sometimes swallowed by mistake. Alkalies, lime water, magnesia, or common chalk mixed with water, may be freely given, and afterward mucilaginous drinks, such as thick gum water or flaxseed tea.

Alkalies are less frequently taken in injurious strength or quant.i.ty, but sometimes children swallow lye by mistake. Common vinegar may be given freely, and then castor or sweet oil in full doses--a tablespoonful at a time, repeated every half hour or two.

Nitrate of silver when swallowed is neutralized by common table salt freely given in solution in water.

The salts of mercury or a.r.s.enic (often kept as bedbug poison), which are powerful irritants, are apt to be very quickly fatal. Milk or the whites of eggs may be freely given and afterward a very thin paste of flour and water. In these cases an emetic is to be given after the poison is neutralized.

Phosphorus paste, kept for roach poison or in parlor matches, is sometimes eaten by children and has been willfully taken for the purpose of suicide. It is a powerful irritant. The first thing to be done is to give freely of magnesia and water; then to give mucilaginous drinks as flaxseed tea, gum water or sa.s.safras pith and water; and lastly to administer finely powdered bone-charcoal, either in pill or in mixture with water.

In no case of poisoning should there be any avoidable delay in obtaining the advice of a physician, and, meanwhile, the friends or bystanders should endeavor to find out exactly what has been taken, so that the treatment adopted may be as prompt and effective as possible.

KEEP STILL.

Keep still. When trouble is brewing, keep still. Even when slander is getting on its legs, keep still. When your feelings are hurt, keep still, till you recover from your excitement at any rate. Things look differently through an unagitated eye. A doctor relates how once in a commotion he wrote a letter, and sent it, and wished he had not. "I had another commotion and wrote a long letter; but life had rubbed a little sense into me. I kept that letter in my pocket against the day when I could look it over without agitation and without tears. I was glad I did. Less and less it seemed necessary to send it I was not sure it would do any hurt, but in my doubt I leaned to reticence, and eventually it was destroyed."

PHILOSOPHICAL FACTS.

The greatest height at which visible clouds ever exist does not exceed ten miles.

Air is about eight hundred and fifteen times lighter than water.

The pressure of the atmosphere upon every square foot of the earth amounts to two thousand one hundred and sixty pounds.

The violence of the expansion of water when freezing is sufficient to cleave a globe of copper of such thickness as to require a force of 27,000 pounds, to produce the same effect.

During the conversion of ice into water one hundred and forty degrees of heat are absorbed.

Water, when converted into steam, increases in bulk eighteen hundred times.

In one second of time--in one beat of the pendulum of a clock--light travels two hundred thousand miles. Were a cannon ball shot toward the sun, and were it to maintain full speed, it would be twenty years in reaching it, and yet light travels through this s.p.a.ce in seven or eight minutes.

Strange as it may appear, a ball of a ton weight, and another of the same material of an ounce weight, falling from any height will reach the ground at the same time.

The heat does not increase as we rise above the earth nearer to the sun, but decreases rapidly until, beyond the regions of the atmosphere, in void, it is estimated that the cold is about seventy degrees below zero.

The line of perpetual frost at the equator is 15,000 feet alt.i.tude; 13,000 feet between the tropics; and 9,000 to 4,000 between the lat.i.tudes of forty degrees and forty-nine degrees.

At a depth of forty-five feet under ground, the temperature of the earth is uniform throughout the year.

The human ear is so extremely sensitive that it can hear a sound that lasts only the twenty-four thousandth part of a second.

Sound travels at the rate of one thousand one hundred and forty-two feet per second-about thirteen miles in a minute. So that if we hear a clap of thunder half a minute after the flash, we may calculate that the discharge of electricity is six and a half miles off.