Useful Knowledge

Feilding Star, Volume X, Issue 34, 13 October 1888, Page 3

Useful Knowledge

HOW TO TREAT DANGEROUS WOUNDS.

THE EDITOR OF THE WELLINGTON POST, Sib,— Having recently proved ihe virtue of a very simple remedy for a bad wound, 1 venture to recount the crcumstances of both wound and cure, and ask you to be good enough to find space for the following in your columns, as the mode of treatment may prove equally beneficial to some other fellow-sufferer. 1 got my finger badly squeezed in the lock of a heavy door, splitting the nail down to the quick and bruising quite two-thirds of the nail and lacerating the flesh ; tbe pain was very severe and the finger became quite numb for about an hour. When circulation returned the pain increased to such an extent that I grew quite faiut, and was considering what I should do to get relief, when I remembered that I had an old recipe by me and determined to try its effect. Tbe recipe recommended smoking the fiuger according to instructions. I adopted the method, and, as soon as I could get the wo.dlen rags together, I smoked my finger thoroughly over the fumes from ihe burning rags, with the surprising result that the pain ceased altoteiher and the finger soothed. No inflammation or supparation has followed the wound, and though I shall lose the nail the fiiitier has healed well, and is unquestionably a practical proof of the viriue of smoking wounds. I may add that the same treatment has been found of great value in cases of dangerous and pain Ful wounds where symptoms of tetanus were feared. The same principle of treatment has found very useful in the case of horses who have pierced the frog with nails, or lamed themselves by injuring itheir hoofs. — I am, .fee, George Henby Davies. Karori, 28th Sept., ISBB. An intelligent and trustworthy correspondent, says the Boston Transcript, has sent the following :—" The smoke of woe-Hen rags is a cure for the most dan-.-gerous wounds." A lady of my acquaintance, ran a ma« •chine needle through her finger, which could not be released until the machine was taken to pieces. The needle had broken in her finger in three pieces, one of which was bent almost double. After repealed trials the needle was extracted by bits, but they were very strongly embedded. The pain reached the shoulder and there was every danger of lockjaw. The woollen rags were put over the coals, and she heid her finger over the smoke, and in a very short time all i;he pain was gone and it never returned, though it was some little time before the finger healed. This is one of many instances of such cures, some of them taking place after several days from the time of the wound. Let woollen rags be kept sacred and always at hand for The smoke and stench will fill the house, perhaps, but that is a trifle when the alternative is lockjaw ; or even 4i long painful sequel to the wound. Another instance was the wound made ■by an enraged cat, which tore. the flesh itom the wrist to the elbow, and bit through the fleshy part of the hand. One ministration of the smoke extracted _all pain, which had been frightful. The remedy is simple, always on hand, -and can be applied by anyone, and what is better, it is infallible. It is simply to smoke the wound, or any bruise or wound sfchat is inflamed, with burnmg wool or woollen cloth. Twenty minutes in the . smoke of wool will take the pain out of -the worst wound ; repeated two or three ' aimea it will allay the worst cases of anflauiination arising from a wound.