Too Long; Didn't Read

When serious accidents occur, medical aid should be immediately procured. Till that can be done, the following directions may be useful. When a child has any thing in its throat, first try, with the finger, to get the article up. If this cannot be done, push it down into the stomach, with a smooth elastic stick. If the article be a pin, sharp bone, glass, or other cutting substance, give an emetic which will immediately operate. In the case of a common cut, bind the lips of the wound together, with a rag, and put nothing else on. If the cut be large, and so situated that rags will not bind it together, use sticking plaster, cut in strips and laid obliquely across the cut. Sometimes it is needful to take a stitch, with a needle and thread, on each lip of the wound, and draw the two sides together. If an artery be cut, it must be immediately tied up, or the person will bleed to death. The blood from an artery is of a bright red color, and spirts out, in regular jets, at each beat of the heart. Take up the bleeding end of the artery, and hold it, or tie it up, till a surgeon comes. When the artery cannot be found, and in all cases of bad cuts on any of the limbs, apply compression; when it can be done, tie a very tight bandage above the wound, if it be below the heart, and below if the wound be above the heart. Put a stick into the band, and twist it as tight as can be borne, till surgical aid be obtained. Bathe bad bruises in hot water, or hot spirits, or a decoction of bitter herbs. Entire rest, is the remedy for sprains. Bathing in warm water, or warm whiskey is very useful. A sprained leg should be kept in a horizontal position, on a bed or sofa.