Important: Safety Warning
This page gives first-aid or emergency advice that predates modern medicine and can make an emergency worse. Do not follow it. In any medical emergency, call emergency services and follow current first-aid guidance.
In addition, this page directs the use of hazardous substances — such as benzine, gasoline, lye, or strong acids — for household tasks. These materials are highly flammable, corrosive, or poisonous, and the practices described have caused fires, burns, and poisonings.
This information has been left in for historical purposes but should not be acted upon.
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Test for Lead
If lead is suspected in water, add a little sulphuret of ammonia or potash. If there is lead in solution, water will assume a dark brown or blackish hue.
XXI. Simple Poisons and Their Antidotes.
EVERY person having the care of children, should be conversant with the bestknown antidote for simple poisons. A specific for poisoning by poison oak (Rhus. toxicodendron), and other poisonous plants of that class, is to dissolve a handful of quicklime in water, let it stand half an hour, then paint the poisoned parts with it. Three or four applications will never fail to cure the most aggravated cases. Poison from bees, hornets, spider-bites, etc., is instantly arrested by the application of equal parts of common salt and bicarbonate of soda, well rubbed in on the place bitten or stung.
XXII. Virulent Poisons and Their Antidotes.