Fig. 156.—Dotted Line showing the Course of the Brachial Artery.
The injured parts should be kept at rest. Movement and disturbance hinder the healing process.
362. Bites of Mad Dogs. Remove the clothing at once, if only from the bitten part, and apply a temporary ligature above the wound. This interrupts the activity of the circulation of the part, and to that extent delays the absorption of the poisonous saliva by the blood-vessels of the wound. A dog bite is really a lacerated and contused wound, and lying in the little roughnesses, and between the shreds, is the poisonous saliva. If by any means these projections and depressions affording the lodgment can be removed, the poison cannot do much harm. If done with a knife, the wound would be converted, practically, into an incised wound, and would require treatment for such.
If a surgeon is at hand he would probably cut out the injured portion, or cauterize it thoroughly. Professional aid is not always at our command, and in such a case it would be well to take a poker, or other suitable piece of iron, heat it red hot in the fire, wipe off and destroy the entire surface of the wound. As fast as destroyed, the tissue becomes white. An iron, even at a white heat, gives less pain and at once destroys the vitality of the part with which it comes in contact.
If the wound is at once well wiped out, and a stick of solid nitrate of silver (lunar caustic) rapidly applied to the entire surface of the wound, little danger is to be apprehended. Poultices and warm fomentations should be applied to the injury to hasten the sloughing away of the part whose vitality has been intentionally destroyed.
Any dog, after having bitten a person, is apt, under a mistaken belief, to be at once killed. This should not be done. There is no more danger from a dog-bite, unless the dog is suffering from the disease called rabies or is “mad,” than from any other lacerated wound. The suspected animal should be at once placed in confinement and watched, under proper safeguards, for the appearance of any symptoms that indicate rabies.
Should no pronounced symptoms indicate this disease in the dog, a great deal of unnecessary mental distress and worry can be saved both on the part of the person bitten and his friends.
363. Injuries to the Blood-vessels. It is very important to know the difference between the bleeding from an artery and that from a vein.
If an artery bleeds, the blood leaps in spurts, and is of a bright scarlet color.