The Funny Side of Physic Part 107

Tobacco exhausts the saliva, the fluids, the blood, often the muscle, _and destroys the recuperative powers of the human system_. It weakens the power of the heart. Nine tenths of the reported deaths from "heart disease" really originate, or result directly from the effects of tobacco-using. And, finally, it destroys the good effects of nearly all medicines. I positively affirm that no patient afflicted with a chronic disease can recover by the use of medicines if he continues the excessive use of tobacco.

I think these are good and conclusive reasons why one should not use that pernicious weed--tobacco.

Avoid all excesses, particularly of coition. Consumptives should husband all their resources. One other way of doing this is to keep from wasting the breath and caloric of the system through the mouth. Again, I say, breathe only through the nostrils. Keep out of crowded and unventilated halls, school-rooms, churches, and houses. Air! air and suns.h.i.+ne! don't forget them.

Avoid patent medicines. They are worthless. Even if one in a thousand were adapted to the _disease_ in question, it might not be to the peculiar const.i.tution of the invalid.

People are so differently const.i.tuted that one kind of food, clothing, or medicine cannot be adapted to all. I wish that I could tell every reader of these pages what remedies are adapted to persons suffering from not only consumption, but from a hundred other diseases. But it is impossible, as intimated in the fore part of this chapter. Not only the quality of a medicine suited to one const.i.tution may not be at all suited to another, but the quant.i.ty is even as uncertain. It requires much knowledge and long experience in the disease, and its various peculiarities, as also of the varied const.i.tution and idiosyncrasies of different patients, in order to prescribe successfully.

As the majority of the readers of this work are predisposed to consumption, let them seek to prevent its development in their systems.

The writer has done this; he has told you in plain terms how it was done, how it still can be; but it is you who must believe in and abide by these instructions. Do this, and you will scarcely require to obtain and retain the knowledge of a thousand remedies and a complete knowledge of yourself, which it requires a lifetime of practice and study to possess.

Dr. Worcester Beach, of New York, in one of his botanical works, tells of a country-woman who, having been given up as incurable with consumption, gathered and boiled together all the different kinds of herbs and barks which she could find upon the farm, and making this decoction into a syrup, drank of it freely, and was cured thereby! I would not recommend this empirical sort of practice, but quote it to show the uncertainty of what medicine was adapted to the case.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

x.x.xIV.

ACCIDENTS.

RULES FOR MACHINISTS, MECHANICS, RAILROAD MEN, ETC., IN CASES OF ACCIDENT.--HOW TO FIND AN ARTERY AND STOP THE BLEEDING.--DROWNING; TO RESTORE.--SUN-STROKE.--AVOID ICE.--"ACCIDENTS WILL HAPPEN."--WHAT TO HAVE IN THE HOUSE.--BRUISES.--BURNS.--DO THE BEST YOU CAN, AND TRUST G.o.d FOR THE REST.

Mechanics, machinists, railroad men, etc., may find the following rules of the most vital importance in case of accidents, whereby valuable lives may be saved:--

1. When a person is seriously injured, do not crowd around him; give him air.

2. Send for a surgeon or physician at once.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 1.]

3. Lay the patient on his back, and ascertain whether he is bleeding. If it is from the artery of the fore-arm, it must be compressed immediately.

If from the _artery_, the blood will _spurt out in jets_. Do not try to stanch the blood at the wound, but find the main artery. Strip the arm, feel for the artery, a little below the arm-pit, _just inside_ of the _large muscle_. (Fig. 1.) _You can feel it throb._ Press it with your thumbs or fingers, while an a.s.sistant folds a large handkerchief, or piece of s.h.i.+rt, if necessary, and ties a knot in the middle, or places a _flat_, _round_ stone in it, puts this over the artery, ties the handkerchief below the thumbs, puts a stick through, and twists it just tight enough to stop the bleeding. (Fig. 2.) The first man may relax his grasp, to ascertain if the compress is sufficiently tight. If you get the knot (or stone) on the artery, a few twists will check the blood. If the limb becomes cold and purple, you have got it too tight. One end of the stick may be tucked under the bandage to hold it from untwisting. The surgeon will arrive and take up the bleeding vessel and tie it.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 2.]

4. If it be the leg which is cut or mangled and bleeding, find the artery, inside the thigh, quite high up, back of the large muscle. (Fig. 3.) Bear on quite hard, for it is deeper than in the arm, till you feel it throb.

Compress it hard, and proceed with the bandage as above directed for the arm. The large artery (femoral) bleeds fast. Work quickly, and do not get excited.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 3.]

A schoolmate of mine died in a few moments, in a blacksmith shop, from a piece of steel flying into his leg. If the smith had known this simple process, stripped the boy, and compressed the artery till help arrived, he would have saved a life, an only son, the support and solace of a widowed mother.

5. If the wound is much below the knee, find the artery (Fig. 4.) in the hollow back of the knee (_popliteal s.p.a.ce_), and proceed as above directed.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 4.]

6. If a wound is not of an artery, that is, if the blood does not spurt out, bandaging the wound may do till the doctor arrives.

7. If the shock has prostrated the patient, give him a teaspoonful of brandy or other liquor--always provided he has not been drinking. Many accidents occur in consequence of liquor-drinking. If the patient is cold, faint, and prostrate, wrap him or her up warm, placing hot bricks, or jugs of hot water, at the feet. When he can swallow, some hot tea, or soup, may be given, if necessary.

8. If the patient has delirium tremens, give him strong coffee.

9. To remove an injured person, do not call a carriage, but take a shutter, or board, or door, throw your coats upon it, and tenderly place him thereon. Carry him carefully. Don't keep step in walking; he will ride easier without.

10. If a patient faints, give him air. Let him lie on the back. Wipe the face with a little water. A little camphor in water may be applied to the face and temples, provided he has not been using it already to excess.

Camphor, used excessively, may keep one faint a long time. Let the clothes be loosened. Keep cool, and wait.

11. Avoid all rude and alarming conversation around the patient. When he recovers a little, do not press around and confuse him with questions of "What can I do for you?" etc. _Let him rest._

12. If a person has been under water, _don't roll him to get the water out of him. There is no water there beyond the mouth._ The life has been rolled out of many a poor wretch, over a barrel, under this foolish delusion of "getting the water out of him." Lay him on his side, in a warm room, or in the sun. Try to inflate the lungs. Don't get a "bellows," and blow him full of wind. He is not like a bladder, or a balloon, that he needs inflating thus. To breathe is what he needs. Let the water, if any, in the mouth, run out. Wrap him warm--hot water at feet. Rub the limbs, if cold, for a long time. Persevere. Do not give him up until a good physician has arrived, and p.r.o.nounced him beyond all hope of recovery.

SUN-STROKE (COUP DE SOLEIL).

The "ounce of prevention" must first be considered in this case.

1. All who can should keep in the shade during the extreme heat of the summer days. You who must "bear the heat and burden of the day" may not be able always to avoid the direct rays of the scorching sun. Wide-rimmed palm or straw hats should be worn, and when the noonday sun pours down its sultry beams, wet the hair, or keep a green leaf, or wet handkerchief, in your hat. This will surely prevent sun-stroke, by the evaporation of moisture. If away in the field, swinging the scythe, or with spade levelling the "everlasting hills," and no water is near, place some green gra.s.s or damp earth in the hat,--any way to avoid sun-stroke and sudden death!

2. You will see, every summer, a paragraph in the newspapers recommending the application of ice to the head in case of threatened sun-stroke, or after sun-stroke. Do not believe all you see in the papers. Just sit down and reason a moment. Think of the great, extreme transition from the powerful heat of the sun's rays on the brain to that of the application of _ice_! It requires but little thought to convince one that the extreme contrast must give such a shock to the brain (or blood therein) as nature cannot resist. Did you ever know a patient to recover from sun-stroke when ice had been applied to his head? _I think not._

I have known one to recover from warm, moist applications. Let the head be kept wet (moist) with tepid water, and covered over by a dry cloth. He cannot swallow. Do not choke him by villanous whiskey poured into the mouth. Having placed him in a warm bed, removed his clothes, and made him comfortable, send for a physician.

"ACCIDENTS WILL HAPPEN."

Yes, and every family should be prepared for them.

1. As a remedy against fatal results, in severe cases, and for deliverance from pain, even in smaller accidents, every family should keep in the house an ounce bottle of tincture of arnica, the cost of which is trifling. Keep it well labelled, and out of the reach of children. To drink it is injurious.

2. For a bruise, or any injury, put half a teaspoonful of the arnica into a teacupful of tepid water, and bathe tenderly the wound. Then wet a cloth in the liquid, bind it on with a dry cloth outside to exclude the air.

When dry, if pain or tenderness remains, renew the application. This will soon reduce any "b.u.mp" on your little ones' heads, except a real phrenological "b.u.mp." A woman once brought a boy to my office, to have me give her some "liniment for a bad b.u.mp on the child's head," showing me the place.

"Madam," I said, "I think a considerable persuasion, with plenty of patient kindness, will do more than medicine to reduce that b.u.mp. It is called, by phrenologists, 'firmness.' By the development, I should judge that the boy was very stubborn."

3. For burns and scalds, keep in the house a vial of tincture of urtica urens. Apply it to burns as above directed for wounds. When the smarting ceases, and the wound is whitish, omit it, and dress the wound with a little mutton tallow on a linen cloth.

Keep no patent medicines about; then you will be less likely to be dosing with them. It is hard to tell what are good, and do not make a medical depot of your stomach to ascertain.

The individual who is continually dabbling in medicines is a perpetual invalid, from the result of such everlasting dosing.

If you regard the concise, yet sufficient, instructions for preserving health laid down herein, particularly after noting the hints thrown out all through the body of the book, you will annually have less and less occasion for the use of medicines.

When you actually think you require a physician, get the best,--the best article is the cheapest in the end,--and abide by his counsel. I have told you of some remarkable characters in the history of medicine; but the harp and flowing locks of Apollo, the caduceus of Mercury, the staff of aesculapius, the h.o.a.ry beard of Hippocrates, the baton of De Sault, the three-tailed wig of Atkins, the silken coat and charming address of Dr.

Reynolds, the gay equipage of Hannes, the library of Radcliffe, or the knowing nods and significant silence of some of the more modern doctors, will avail nothing in the time of great danger and distress.