Blood-Poisoning.—This results from dirt being allowed to get into a wound. Swelling, pain, red veins appear. Fomenting with hot water is the best relief.
Choking.—Loosen collar; hold the patient's nose with one hand and with the forefinger of the other, or with the handle of a spoon try and pull out whatever is stuck in his throat. By pressing down the root of the tongue you may make him sick and throw out the obstruction. For slight choking make patient bend head well back and swallow small pills made of bread, and sip of water. Sometimes a good hard smack on the back will do him good.
SNAKE BITE.
Fortunately poisonous snakes are uncommon in England, but if you travel in a colony you are sure to come across them, and you ought always to know how to deal with bites from them. The same treatment does also for wounds from poisoned arrows, mad dogs, etc. Remember the poison from a bite gets into your blood and goes all through your body in a very few beats of your pulse. Therefore, whatever you do must be done immediately. The great thing is to stop the poison rushing up the veins into the body. To do this bind a cord or handkerchief immediately round the limb above the place where the patient has been bitten, so as to stop the blood flying back to the heart with the poison. Then try and suck the poison out of the wound, and, if possible, cut the wound still more, to make it bleed, and run the poison out. The poison, when sucked into the mouth, does no harm unless you have a wound in your mouth. The patient should also be given stimulants, such as coffee or spirits, to a very big extent, and not allowed to become drowsy, but should be walked about and pricked and smacked in order to keep his senses alive.
[Practise this process in make-believe.]
GRIT IN THE EYE.
Do not let your patient rub the eye; it will only cause inflammation and swelling, and so make the difficulty of removing the grit all the greater.
If the grit is in the lower eyelid, draw down the lid as far as you can, and gently brush it out with the corner of a moistened handkerchief, or with a paintbrush, or feather.
If it is under the upper lid, pull the lid away from the eyeball and push the underlid up underneath the upper one. In this way the eyelashes of the lower lid will generally clean the inside of the upper one.
Another way, which every scout must practise, is to seat your patient and stand behind him yourself with the back of his head against your chest. Lay a card, match, or any flat substance under your own thumb on the upper part of the upper eyelid and then catch hold of the edge of the eyelid and draw it upwards over the match so that it turns inside out; gently remove the grit with a feather or wet handkerchief, and roll the eyelid down again.