MEDICAL HINTS FOR COUNTRY SETTLERS. BY T. E. RAWSON, RSQ., M.D.

Waikato Times, Volume I, Issue 67, 3 October 1872, Page 2

MEDICAL HINTS FOR COUNTRY SETTLERS. BY T. E. RAWSON, RSQ., M.D.

ACCIDENTS—Continued,

Don't carlcssly leave wells and soft-water cisterns uncovered; nor tubs about, with water in them,, where there are little children*. I have known little children drowned in rain-water butts and cisterns, left carelessly open ; and 1 recollect a little child being drowned by falling, head foremost, into a basin of water not much bigger than- a man's hat. In droivniny r the tirst thing to be done is, to get the body out of the water ; and tins may as well be dono before tho- doctor's arrival, and would save some invaluable time. This may seem rather superfluous adVico, and yet, though I scarcely ex]x>eb to bo believed, the facts I am about to relate were literally fc.uie. An infant rolled off from the sofa, head foremost, into a vessel half full of water, and. though there were two women in the room at the time, it never occurred to either of them to take it out. One of tho women ran off for me, living at tho time about a hundred yards- olf. The other woman seemed, to have gone demented! When I arrived, the child was still iit

the walcv, and of course dead. Ono Sunday morning, as I was attending Divine service, I was hastily summoned out to two young men who had just been drowned. Three young men, sons of wealthy farmers, two of them brothers, had ridden out to the River Soar to bathe. None of them could swim. The Soar is a narrow river, and where they bathed is usually Bhallow ; but the river had been recently dredged for gravel, and two of them, got out of their' depth into one of the holes newly made, and clung to each other. One of the brothers was observed from a distance, apparently in a very excited state, frequently mounting and remount iug his horse. When I arrived, both the young men had been dead about half an hour. And yet, so narrow was the river, and so circumscribed the hole, that a girth, or a stirrup-leather, or, better still, the bridle of his horse, thrown from one end, while it was held fast by the other, might have extricated them both, had the survivor retained his self-possession;, Lay the body down, with the head slightly raised,, wipe out the mouth and throat, draw the tongue forward to prevent the windpipe being obstructed ; atrip off the clothes,, and set people at work to rubthe body well with their warm; hands, or by means of a flannel, after having wiped the body dry. Endeavour to imitate breathing by alternately raising the arms above the head and pressing them against the sides. Persevere ia the use of these means till the medical man arrives.. "Then give place to the Physician," (as saith the "Book of Wisdom.") " There is a time when in their hands there is good success." (The term " physician " is here used in a general and not a special sense ; one legal qualification, is as good as another.) In hanging, the same measures are to be adopted, as in drowning, but cold water should' be dasheel on the faco and chest. Of" course, the first thing to be done is to cut the body down,, and relieve the throat from all pressure. But before this is done, if the husband and wife havo been quarrelling, it may be as well to see if it is not merely to trifle with the feelings of the "partner in life;"

A labourer of my father's, wlu> was continually quarrelling with his wife, went out, threatening to hang himself. As he did not come in. again at teatime, his wife went to> an, out-house to look for him. She there found her husband tied up to a beam by a rope. As she did not observe that his feet were resting on a strong box, she at once courageously proceeded to cut him down, when she was startled by a sepulchral voice, "All, Mary, it's too late now!" Mary, therefore, did not cui> him down, disappointed that her generous services were not required.

When.a child is choking from any foreign substance in the throat,, give it a smart slap behind the shoulders, and then, if it is nob dislodged, immediately pass the little finger down* the throat, by the side of the obstruction, and hook it out. I was once sent for to a fine child, about two years old, who was said to be choking. I had to ride about a mile. When I got to the house the child was dead.. On opening, the mouth, to discover the cause of death,,a largo gooseberry rolled out, showing how easily it might have been dislodged if any of the numerous persons present had had a little common sense, the most uncommon of all' sense: If .the foreign substance cannot be readied withthe finger; it may produce choking, and give more* time, but would scarcely, cause suffocation; and in such a case a "farthing candle" or rush-light—to be found in almost every cottage in the country in England—has often been found' the-most ready and safe-means of pushing it down into' the gullet, below all dangerous pressure on the windpipe. I sometimes doubt whether medical men are more a bane or a blessing. People- are- so in- the- habit of trusting to a medical man, that they are thrown off' their own resources, and the exercise of their commonsense, in crisis where a moment lost in waiting for a medical man- is life lost! This helplessness is popularly called "want of nouse," and by the Americans, by the adjective " natheless. A farmer went home late one night intoxicated,. As he was not let into the house-immediately, he thrust his arm through the window, and cut the radial artery afc the- wrist. No steps were taken tostop the bleeding, but the- doctor was sent for, but before his arrival (it was two miles off) he had bled to death. A firm grasp of the wrist, and the thumbsteadily planted on the bleeding vessel, would have arrested the loss of blood till the artery could have been. tied. Nothing but a little "nouse" on. the part of the bystanders was wanting, and life- would havebeen saved. (To he continued.)