Mother's Remedies, Thomas Jefferson Ritter [reading well .TXT] 📗

pennyroyal may be purchased at any drug store for ten cents. Make a tea of this, then add the hog's lard. As we all know, that this will produce vomiting and relax the tissues so that any foreign matter will come out.

4. Choking, Grease and Meat Common Remedy for.—"Warm lard, or any kind of grease, and give the patient. Have seen it used with success." The warm grease will usually cause vomiting, and in that way remove the foreign matter.

In the Gullet.—An emetic is good to give if the body cannot be reached with the hand. Doctors use forceps or another instrument called a probang. Pennies will go down into the stomach and pass out through the bowels and usually cause no trouble. Fish bones can generally be reached with the finger or crochet hook. This is also good for foreign bodies in the nose, such as beans.

THINGS IN THE NOSE. Corn, Peas, Beans, Buttons, etc.—Children frequently get such things in their nose and also ears. They should be removed soon and then there will be no harm done. They have been known to remain for years, and they have been the cause of catarrh. A small curved hair-pin makes a good instrument to use and is always handy. Also a crochet hook, though not so good, for it will not bend as well as the hair-pin. The mother should sit facing a window or open door. The child should be placed on its back with its head resting between the mother's limbs and an assistant holds the child's hands. Its legs will be hanging down. The light now shines into the nostril and the bent hair-pin can be slipped over the foreign body and easily hooked out. The head must be held quiet by the mother. The mother can do this herself, with one hand holding the head quiet and with the other can introduce the hair-pin and remove the object. But the position of the child must be reversed with the head between her knees and the light shining in the nose; or place the child on a bench or cradle or buggy, head on a pillow, and to the light. Hold the head and legs quiet; by kneeling by the child's side, you can easily see the object and remove it. If they are too far back, they can be pushed over into the throat, but parents should never attempt to remove an object in the nose they cannot see. Sometimes causing sneezing with a feather or pepper will expel the object.

[ACCIDENTS AND POISONS 397]

TREATMENT OF THE DROWNED, SUFFOCATED OR ELECTRICALLY SHOCKED. Accidents, etc.—The one action of first importance in the treatment of the drowned, the suffocated or the electrically shocked is to restore breathing. This must be done by expelling from the lungs the poison or water which has caused the trouble, and by establishing artificial respiration. Avoid delay. One moment may lose or save a life.

Schaefer Method of Effecting Artificial Respiration In Case of Drowning.—After an investigation and comparison of the different methods of artificial respiration, Schaefer suggests one which is by far the simplest and easiest and at the same time one of the most effective and least injurious to the patient. In describing it he says: "It consists in laying the subject in the prone posture, preferably on the ground, with a thick folded garment underneath the chest and epigastrium, (region above the stomach). The operator puts himself athwart or at the side of the subject, facing his head (see plate) and places his hands on each side over the lower part of the back (lowest ribs). He then slowly throws the weight of his body forward to bear upon his own arms and this presses upon the thorax of the subject and forces air out of the lungs. This being effected, he gradually relaxes the pressure by bringing his own body up again to a more erect position, but without moving his hands." These movements should be repeated regularly at a rate of twelve to fifteen times per minute, until normal respiration begins or until hope of its restoration is abandoned. Some claim there is no hope of restoring respiration after half an hour of artificial respiration. Others claim there is a chance of saving the patient even then, and say that artificial respiration should be kept up for two or three hours.

[398 MOTHERS' REMEDIES]

TO RESUSCITATE THE DROWNED.—First: Lose no time in recovering the body from the water. Always try to restore life; for while ten minutes under the water is usually the limit, still persons have been resuscitated after being under water for thirty or forty minutes. Do not lose time by taking the body to a place of shelter—operate immediately.

[Illustration: The Schaefer Position to be Adopted for Effecting
Artificial Respiration in Case of Drowning.]

[ACCIDENTS AND POISONS 399]

Second: Quickly lay the person prone, face downward with stomach resting on a barrel or roll of clothing, so the head will be lower than rest of the body and the water will run out from the throat and lungs. Wipe dry mouth and nostrils. Wrap the corner of a handkerchief about the forefinger and clear the mouth of all mucus and slimy substance back as far as the top of the throat. Rip open the clothing on chest and back and keep the face exposed to the air. Separate the jaws and keep them apart with a cork, stone, or knot in a handkerchief.

Third: Remove the roll of clothing from underneath the stomach of the patient. Kneel by the side of or across the patient. Place your hands over the lowest ribs. Lean forward and put your weight straight over the lowest ribs. Exert this pressure for three seconds. To count three seconds, say: "One thousand and one, one thousand and two; one thousand and three,"

Fourth: Do not remove the hands from the ribs; but release the pressure from the ribs for two seconds, by squatting backward. To count two seconds, say: "One thousand and one, one thousand and two,"

Fifth: Again exert pressure straight over the lowest ribs for three seconds. Alternate thus (three seconds pressure and two seconds release), about twelve times a minute, until breathing is restored. This method of resuscitation at once expels water and produces the identical results of normal breathing.

Sixth: If another person is at hand to assist, let him do everything possible to keep the body warm, by sheltering it from the wind, rubbing hands and soles of feet, making hot applications. Warm the head nearly as fast as the other parts of the body to avoid congestion. Camphor or ammonia may be applied to nostrils to excite breathing.

Seventh: Do not give up too soon. Any time within two hours you may be on the point of reviving the patient without there being any sign of it. Send for a physician as soon as possible after the accident. Prevent friends from crowding around the patient and excluding fresh air.

AFTER-TREATMENT.—After breathing is restored, remove the patient to a warm bed where there is free circulation of fresh air. Administer in small doses stimulants (hot coffee, ginger tea, hot sling) being careful not to let the patient choke or strangle. There is danger that the patient may suffer congestion of the lungs and have great difficulty in breathing. When this occurs, a large mustard plaster should be placed over the lungs.

HOW TO KEEP FROM DROWNING.—To keep from drowning it is advisable, but not necessary, to know how to swim. The human body in the water weighs little more than a pound; so that one finger placed upon a piece of board, an oar or a paddle, will easily keep the head above water, and the feet and the other hand can be used to propel the body toward the shore. It is all important for the person in the water to breathe and keep a cool head, and the mouth closed.

[400 MOTHERS' REMEDIES]

HOW TO FIND DROWNED PERSONS.—Make a board raft, ten or twelve feet square. Cut a round hole in the center, eight or ten inches in diameter. Lie down on the raft with the face over the hole, covering the head with a coat or shawl, to exclude the light. By this contrivance the rays of the light are concentrated directly under the raft, and objects of any size can be seen a considerable distance below the surface. Tow the raft over the place where the drowned person is supposed to be. If the body has just gone under and no raft can be provided at once, dive or drag the bottom with line and hooks. The important object is to rescue the body at the earliest possible moment. If the body is not rescued, it will rise to the surface within a week or ten days.

Three hundred lives are lost in Michigan every year from drowning. If by studying and learning how to carry out the directions in this article, you can be a life saver at some critical moment, the few moments spent in careful reading will be well repaid. Master the directions so that you will be able to do everything possible in case of accident.

ELECTRIC SHOCK, ETC.—In suffocation by smoke or any poisonous gas, as also by hanging if the neck is not broken, and in suspended breathing from effects of chloroform, hydrate of chloral, or electric shock, remove all obstructions to breathing, instantly loosen or cut apart all neck and waist bands, taking special pains to keep the head very low, and placing the body face downward, to prevent closure of the windpipe by the tongue falling back. Then proceed to induce artificial respiration the same as in drowning, described above.

BATHING IN SEWAGE POLLUTED WATERS IS DANGEROUS.—Cases have been reported where typhoid fever has been contracted by bathing in streams below cities and villages. Probably this occurred through accidentally or carelessly taking the infected water into the mouth. No person should bathe in an ordinary stream just below any city or village, or other source of sewage or privy drainage, or in any harbor or lake near the entrance into it of a sewer or the drainage of a privy.

POISONS

An antidote is something given that counteracts poison, such as soda, chalk, magnesia, soap, whiting, milk mixed with magnesia, soda diluted, etc., followed by whites of eggs and bland drinks such as flaxseed tea, slippery elm tea, quince seed tea, and sweet or castor oil given after regular antidote.

For Shock, inject hot black coffee into the rectum.

Emetic is some medicine given to produce vomiting. The simplest emetic is mustard and warm water. If one does not know what poison has been taken, the best thing to do is to give an emetic first.

[ACCIDENTS AND POISONS 401]

Mustard.—One-half ounce or four teaspoonfuls for an adult, one to two teaspoonfuls for a child, of mustard to a cup of warm water may be given and repeated every ten or fifteen minutes until free vomiting is produced.

Salt and warm water may be used in the same way. Tickling the throat with a finger or a feather produces vomiting.

Goose grease, lard, lard drippings, vaselin, all in large amounts.

Other medicines: Sulphate of zinc, ten to twenty grains at a dose, in a cup of warm water; or fluid extract of ipecac fifteen to thirty drops, or syrup of ipecac one teaspoonful.

Poisons may be divided into corrosive and irritant.

Corrosive poison: This is a poison that is likely to eat or burn through organic tissue immediately.

Irritant poison acts more slowly and produces inflammation which later may result in suppuration and perforation.

An emetic or stomach pump cannot be used in some poisons, such as suphuric acid, because the tissues are quickly injured by the acid and the emetic and pump would only injure farther.

ACONITE. Symptoms.—Sudden collapse; slow, feeble, irregular pulse, and breathing; tickling in the mouth and the extremities, giddiness, great muscular weakness; pupils generally dilated, may be contracted; mind is clear.

Antidotes: Solution of tannic acid, twenty drops to a glass of water, to wash out the stomach.

Treatment.—Stimulants, whisky or brandy; digitalis, artificial respiration, warmth and friction of the body. Lie in recumbent position.

ALCOHOL. Symptoms.—Stupid, confused, giddy, staggers, drowsy, but can be aroused; full pulse, deep snoring, respiration, injected eyes, dilated pupils, low temperature.

Emetics.—Strong hot coffee, inhale amyl nitrite; hot and cold douches.

AMMONIA. Symptoms.—Intense inflammation of the stomach and bowels, often with bloody vomiting and purging; lips and tongue swollen; violent difficulty in breathing; characteristic odor.

Antidotes.—Lemon juice and water, vinegar and water half and half.

Treatment.—Milk, soothing drinks; sweet oil