Part 107 (1/2)

Tobacco exhausts the saliva, the fluids, the blood, often the muscle, _and destroys the recuperative powers of the human system_. It weakens the power of the heart. Nine tenths of the reported deaths from ”heart disease” really originate, or result directly from the effects of tobacco-using. And, finally, it destroys the good effects of nearly all medicines. I positively affirm that no patient afflicted with a chronic disease can recover by the use of medicines if he continues the excessive use of tobacco.

I think these are good and conclusive reasons why one should not use that pernicious weed--tobacco.

Avoid all excesses, particularly of coition. Consumptives should husband all their resources. One other way of doing this is to keep from wasting the breath and caloric of the system through the mouth. Again, I say, breathe only through the nostrils. Keep out of crowded and unventilated halls, school-rooms, churches, and houses. Air! air and suns.h.i.+ne! don't forget them.

Avoid patent medicines. They are worthless. Even if one in a thousand were adapted to the _disease_ in question, it might not be to the peculiar const.i.tution of the invalid.

People are so differently const.i.tuted that one kind of food, clothing, or medicine cannot be adapted to all. I wish that I could tell every reader of these pages what remedies are adapted to persons suffering from not only consumption, but from a hundred other diseases. But it is impossible, as intimated in the fore part of this chapter. Not only the quality of a medicine suited to one const.i.tution may not be at all suited to another, but the quant.i.ty is even as uncertain. It requires much knowledge and long experience in the disease, and its various peculiarities, as also of the varied const.i.tution and idiosyncrasies of different patients, in order to prescribe successfully.

As the majority of the readers of this work are predisposed to consumption, let them seek to prevent its development in their systems.

The writer has done this; he has told you in plain terms how it was done, how it still can be; but it is you who must believe in and abide by these instructions. Do this, and you will scarcely require to obtain and retain the knowledge of a thousand remedies and a complete knowledge of yourself, which it requires a lifetime of practice and study to possess.

Dr. Worcester Beach, of New York, in one of his botanical works, tells of a country-woman who, having been given up as incurable with consumption, gathered and boiled together all the different kinds of herbs and barks which she could find upon the farm, and making this decoction into a syrup, drank of it freely, and was cured thereby! I would not recommend this empirical sort of practice, but quote it to show the uncertainty of what medicine was adapted to the case.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

x.x.xIV.

ACCIDENTS.

RULES FOR MACHINISTS, MECHANICS, RAILROAD MEN, ETC., IN CASES OF ACCIDENT.--HOW TO FIND AN ARTERY AND STOP THE BLEEDING.--DROWNING; TO RESTORE.--SUN-STROKE.--AVOID ICE.--”ACCIDENTS WILL HAPPEN.”--WHAT TO HAVE IN THE HOUSE.--BRUISES.--BURNS.--DO THE BEST YOU CAN, AND TRUST G.o.d FOR THE REST.

Mechanics, machinists, railroad men, etc., may find the following rules of the most vital importance in case of accidents, whereby valuable lives may be saved:--

1. When a person is seriously injured, do not crowd around him; give him air.

2. Send for a surgeon or physician at once.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 1.]

3. Lay the patient on his back, and ascertain whether he is bleeding. If it is from the artery of the fore-arm, it must be compressed immediately.

If from the _artery_, the blood will _spurt out in jets_. Do not try to stanch the blood at the wound, but find the main artery. Strip the arm, feel for the artery, a little below the arm-pit, _just inside_ of the _large muscle_. (Fig. 1.) _You can feel it throb._ Press it with your thumbs or fingers, while an a.s.sistant folds a large handkerchief, or piece of s.h.i.+rt, if necessary, and ties a knot in the middle, or places a _flat_, _round_ stone in it, puts this over the artery, ties the handkerchief below the thumbs, puts a stick through, and twists it just tight enough to stop the bleeding. (Fig. 2.) The first man may relax his grasp, to ascertain if the compress is sufficiently tight. If you get the knot (or stone) on the artery, a few twists will check the blood. If the limb becomes cold and purple, you have got it too tight. One end of the stick may be tucked under the bandage to hold it from untwisting. The surgeon will arrive and take up the bleeding vessel and tie it.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 2.]

4. If it be the leg which is cut or mangled and bleeding, find the artery, inside the thigh, quite high up, back of the large muscle. (Fig. 3.) Bear on quite hard, for it is deeper than in the arm, till you feel it throb.

Compress it hard, and proceed with the bandage as above directed for the arm. The large artery (femoral) bleeds fast. Work quickly, and do not get excited.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 3.]

A schoolmate of mine died in a few moments, in a blacksmith shop, from a piece of steel flying into his leg. If the smith had known this simple process, stripped the boy, and compressed the artery till help arrived, he would have saved a life, an only son, the support and solace of a widowed mother.

5. If the wound is much below the knee, find the artery (Fig. 4.) in the hollow back of the knee (_popliteal s.p.a.ce_), and proceed as above directed.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 4.]

6. If a wound is not of an artery, that is, if the blood does not spurt out, bandaging the wound may do till the doctor arrives.