Fainting and Other Fits.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 11 December 1914, Page 3

Fainting and Other Fits.

A celebrated physician recently said :"I wish you would do something to teach 'people the difference between a fainting lit, and an epi- i leptic fit. You see, a fainting fit i is produced by the blood leaving the head. It is important to remember this, because it determines the method of treating those n!Hicted people when no doctor is near, and because everyone occasionally finds it his duty to go to the helps of some person in a fit, without a moment for reflect ion, let alone inquiry. "If a person faints he ought to be laid down Mat on his back, for this wUI facilitate the return of j blood to his head. Indeed, nature has prosified for this, for a, person who faints will full down and soon recover if no one interfered. On the other hand, a person with an epileptic or cataleptic fit, indicated by convulsions and frothing at the mouth, ought to be propped up, so as to facilitate the flow of blood from the head to the j lower parts of the body. which j may be still further promoted by slapping the palni.s of the hands. Now, I cannot account for it, but the fact is that all ignorant people, in an emergency, reverse this treatment. ] A person who simply faints is carefully supported in a chair, I and the face is plied with cold water applications, fanned, the result being that. the. fainting is prolonged. On the oilier hand, a man who drops in the street with epilepsy or catalepsy is invariably laid Hat on his back, which in some cases is enough to kill him."