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.
This information has been left in for historical purposes but should not be acted upon.
Accidents And Sudden Sickness
A LIFE-PRESERVER
A felt or silk hat, held so as to keep the crown full of air, will sustain a person above water for a great length of time. PANICS. If in a…
POISONOUS WOUNDS
Wounds by which poison has been carried into the system, require instant treatment. The wound must be burned out by a stick of lunar…
FRACTURE
Send at once for a physician, and simply make the patient as comfortable as possible. If he is to be conveyed to some distance, the…
SWALLOWING PIECES OF BROKEN GLASS, PINS, ETC
By no means take a purgative. Rather partake freely of swet pudding, or any solid farinaceous food, and it is possible that both may pass…
BITES OF SERPENTS
When kitten by a rattlesnake, or other poisonous serpent, pinch the skin, and, if the wound can be reached, suck out all the blood…
FAINTING
Debility of the nervous system favors fainting. The head should be kept low; and if the patient faints in a chair, the simplest treatbe…
SHOCK FROM COLD WATER
Prostration from drinking or bathing in cold water while exhausted by heat or exercise should be treated as described for shock from other…
EPILEPTIC FITS
In these there is nothing which a by-stander or friend <can do, except to keep out of reach such articles as may injure the patient do…
LIGHTNING
If the person shows no signs of life, strip and dash the body with cold water, dry and place in bed with bottles of hot water at the pit of…
BREAKING THROUGH ICE
In assisting persons who have broken through ice, get a long pole, or stick, or board, to distribute the weight over a greater surface of…
HANGING
Death is from the same cause as in drowning. Cut down the body without allowing it to fall, place on face, press back tongue with finger to…
BURNING-HOUSES
When a house is on fire, close all the doors and prevent currents of air. If the fire could be entirely shut in, it would smother and die…
FOREIGN BODIES IN THE EAR
Take the head of the child between the knees, face downward, and inject a stream of warna water into the ear, holding the nozzle of the…
FOREIGN BODY IN NOSTRIL
Children often push foreign bodies up the nostril. To remove it, make the child draw a full breath, and then, closing the other nostril…
BITES OF DOGS
The only safe remedy in case of a bite from a dog sus pected of madness, is to burn out the wound thoroughly with a red-hot iron, or with…
FOREIGN BODIES IN THE EYE
The particle almost invariably lodges under the upper lid, adhering to it. If that lid is grasped by the thumb and finger, drawn outward…
SUFFOCATION
This often occurs from carbonic acid gas, or "choke-damp," on entering wells or old cellars; this gas being heavier than air, falls and…
ACCIDENTS IN GENERAL
The first and most important thing, after sending for a surgeon, when an accident has occurred, is to keep off the crowd. No one, except…
BURNS AND SCALDS
First put the fire out: If the clothing is on fire, throw the person on the ground and wrap in carpet, rug, or your coat, if nothing else…
DROWNING
Death is caused by cutting off the supply of fresh air from the lungs, so that the process of purification of the arterial blood ceases…
HEMORRHAGES
Bleeding from the nose may be stopped by lying flat on the back, with the head raised, and the hands held above it. The nose must be…
Antidotes To Poisons
The first thing to do is to cause their rejection by vomiting, to do which place mustard mixed with salt on the tongue, or give large…
Antidotes
Alkalies-Soap and milk, chalk, soda, lime-water. Vegetable Acids-Vinegar, oil in abundance.
Bite Of Serpent
Cold douche, followed by friction. Starch, wheat flour in water.