Manual of Military Training Part 127

If you use tobacco, do not chew or smoke while marching. Tobacco is only a dope and increases the work of the heart.

A cup of hot coffee is a good stimulant.

=1474. RULE 4. Keep the body supplied with fresh air.= The brain, kidneys and other internal organs require oxygen (a part of the air) continually, and if deprived of it for five minutes, the body will die. Therefore, it is easy to see that we must continually get plenty of fresh air into the lungs to supply the blood which carries the oxygen throughout the body. Except in winter time when steam-heated barracks are filled with sleeping men, it is not, as a rule, difficult to get all the fresh air we need. The air in a dormitory should smell sweet and clean, even though warm. Fresh air should be continually admitted in a way that will not throw a draft on any of the sleepers.

It is much better to sleep in a cold room with fresh air than in a hot stuffy one.

Fresh air not only prevents consumption, but it will cure mild cases of consumption without other medicines.

=1475. RULE 5. Keep the body well exercised without exhaustion.= Exercise is absolutely necessary to good health. Lack of exercise of any set of muscles will cause them to grow flabby and weak. Outdoor sports are the best form of exercise, because they use all the body muscles, and are in the open clear air.

Exhaustion, on the other hand, not only weakens the muscles of the body, but it also lessens the vital forces and powers to resist germs.

=1476. RULE 6. Keep the body rested by sufficient sleep.= Give the body enough sleep. Eight hours of uninterrupted sleep are enough for the average man, and you should always have that much in every twenty-four hours. Remember your comrades need it also; so, if you come in after taps, do not make a racket with slamming doors, heavy tramping, talking or whistling. And in camp be careful not to fall over tent ropes or step on other sleepers. Do not drink coffee at night,--it will keep you awake and rob your body of needed rest.

When on the march take advantage of every halt to rest your body. As soon as the command is given to fall out, select, if possible, a dry place on the side of the road to sit or lie on. If carrying the pack, loosen it and rest back on it, in a sitting or lying position. If the march has been a long one, lie flat on your back and raise the feet in the air. This is a quick way to remove the heavy dragged feeling of the feet and legs and to rest the heart, because the blood runs out of the legs into the body.

=1477. RULE 7. Keep the body free of wastes. Get into the habit of emptying the bowels at a certain hour each day.= Immediately after breakfast is a good time. This is a habit that can be cultivated just like any other habit. Cultivate it. It will do much to keep you in good health.

Always empty the bowels and bladder, especially the bowels, whenever you have the least desire to do so. Do not allow a little personal inconvenience or laziness to prevent you from doing this. The wastes from the bowels and bladder, especially the bowels, are poisons that should always be expelled from the body just as soon as possible.

The free drinking of water flushes the bladder and helps to loosen the bowels. A gla.s.s of hot water soon after reveille will not only help to loosen the bowels, but it will also benefit the stomach and flush out the bladder. Some people drink a big gla.s.s of water, either hot or cold, every morning before breakfast.

Proper physical exercise and eating ripe or cooked fruits will also do much to keep the bowels open.

Pressing and rubbing _downward_ with the left hand on the lower _left_ side of the belly will do much to induce a movement of the bowels.

Most constipation comes from swallowing food in large chunks, drinking large quant.i.ties of cold liquids with the meals and eating heavy articles of diet, such as beans, fried pork, hot bread.

Do not get into the habit of using laxatives to keep the bowels open.

Their continued use is injurious. Use the natural means suggested above.

The constant moderate use of alcohol injures the kidneys and when they become too weak to work and throw off the waste, a deadly disease, called "Bright's Disease," results.

CHAPTER III

FIRST AID TO THE SICK AND INJURED

=1478. Object of teaching first aid.= The object of teaching first aid, or early a.s.sistance of the injured or sick, is not only to enable one person to help another, but also in some measure to help himself, until a surgeon or other thoroughly trained person can be seen.

It is a mistake to think you must know many things to be helpful, it is only necessary to know a few simple things, _but you must understand them clearly and be able to do them well_.

=1479. Asphyxiation (suffocation) by Gas.= Asphyxiation by gas is treated the same as in the case of drowning, omitting, of course, the operation of getting the water out of the body.

=1480. Bite of dog.= } Either requires immediate and heroic treatment.

=Bite of snake.= } _Lose no time._

1. Prevent the poison from traveling toward the heart and brain by putting on at once a tourniquet between the wound and the heart.

2. Suck the wound and be sure to spit out the poison and rinse the mouth afterward. It is safe, if you have no cuts or sores on the lips or in the mouth.

3. Enlarge the wound with a knife (in the direction of the bone, not across) to make it bleed more freely, and again suck the wound.

4. Apply to the wound any strong acid or caustic, such as carbolic acid, lime, wood ashes or tincture of iodine, or burn it with a hot iron. Telegraph wire will do.

5. Wash out the wound with hot water and pack with equal parts of baking soda and salt, and apply a bandage.

6. Then, in the case of a snake bite, loosen the tourniquet little by little, taking about half an hour so as to permit any poison that may remain in the wound to be _gradually_ absorbed by the blood. In the case of a dog bite, the tourniquet is loosened at once.

After the tourniquet has been removed, the patient must rest quietly for several hours. If he feel faint, he may have a stimulant,--alcohol, coffee or tea,--_but do not give the stimulant before the poison has been removed from the wound_, because stimulants increase the heart beats and thereby hurry the poison into the blood.

If the dog is not mad (rabid), the wound does not need treatment different from any other kind of a wound.

When bitten by a snake, kill it, if possible, and have it shown to a doctor for examination.

=1481. Bleeding.= The following comparison between the blood and the water in a city will enable you to understand easily the question of bleeding:

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

The {water } flows from a pump called {waterworks} through {_blood_} {_heart_ } {rigid pipes } called {watermains}. When there is {a leak } {_elastic tubes_} {_arteries_} {_bleeding_} the {plumber } stops the flow of the {water } by {_doctor_} {_blood_} {turning a key valve } between the {waterworks} and the {_pressing the blood tube shut_} {_heart_ }

{leak } and then proceeds to repair the leak {_bleeding cut_} {by soldering }. He then turns on the {water } by {_by sewing or by bandaging_} {_blood_} {opening the valve in the water main }.

{_removing pressure on the blood tube_}

Fig. 2 shows where pressure with the thumb will squeeze the blood tube between the thumb and the bone.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 2

_Pressure with thumb at 1 checks bleeding of left side of chin cheek and jaw._

_Pressure at 2 stops bleeding from big blood tube on left side of head and neck and face._

_Pressure at 3 controls bleeding in arm pit and shoulder._

_Pressure at 4 checks bleeding in arm pit and anywhere down the arm and hand._

_Pressure at 5 stops bleeding of arm and hand._

_Pressure at 6, on either leg, stops bleeding of leg and foot._]

In addition to the pressure raise the leg or arm or head above the heart. This will slow the flow of the blood and lessen leakage.

However, one cannot hold the thumb forever on the blood tube, so we make an artificial thumb, called a _tourniquet_, which is a pebble or other hard object wrapped in some soft material (to prevent injury to flesh), which is pressed down on the blood tube and held in place by a strip of any material which can be tied so as to keep up the pressure.