If the eye is much inflamed, bathe it with lukewarm weak tea.
If the grit is firmly embedded in the eye, drop a little oil (olive or castor oil) into the lower lid; close the eye and bandage it with a soft wet pad and bandage, and get a doctor to see it.
[Practise above.]
SUICIDES.
I was once travelling in the train in Algeria, a part of North Africa which belongs to the French, and there was with me only one other passenger in the carriage, a French farmer, with whom I got into conversation. He became very communicative, and told me that if I had not come into the carriage he would by this time have been a dead man, as he had got into the train with the intention of killing himself. So I asked him about his troubles, and, as he unfolded them to me, I was able to tell him various remedies which promised success for him in the future, for he was chiefly upset over his recent failures in farming. After we had been going on for some time, he quite cheered up, and told me that he was going to get out at the next station, and go back and set to work in the way suggested.
You may have opportunities of saving people who are thinking of killing themselves. The newspapers give cases of suicides almost every day, and go into details of them, because they know that so many people have a foolish love of reading horrors.
Most people at one time or the other of their lives get a feeling that they will kill themselves; as a rule they get over it in a day or two, and find that it comes from nothing worse than an attack of indigestion, liver, or influenza, or from disappointment, or over-anxiety; but there are others with weaker minds, who read these newspaper accounts, and brood over them till they can think of nothing else. They hug the idea to themselves, although with horror, and get panic-stricken. They think too much of their own trouble, without thinking how the rest of the world is doing.
It only needs a sympathising friend to come along and take command of the would-be suicide, and to give him something else to think about and to do. You can point out that suicide does no good to anybody; that it generally comes from something wrong with the bodily health, which makes the patient hysterical; that he has only got to command his own mind firmly, and the attack will pass off again. Then, if possible, try to get a Salvation Army officer to see him; he will probably set him right. In this way you may be able to save lives.
[The Salvation Army have now a department which gives advice to people who are feeling inclined to kill themselves. This past year 1125 men and 90 women have applied to their London office alone; and of these probably three-quarters would have killed themselves if it had not been for the sympathy and advice of the officers who reasoned with them, and found for them ways out of their difficulties. The official returns of suicides for the past year show a much smaller number than usual.]
Where a man has gone so far as to attempt suicide, a scout should know what to do with him. In the case of a man cutting his throat, the great point is to stop the bleeding from the artery, if it be cut. The artery runs from where the collarbone and breast-bone join, up to the corner of the jaw, and the way to stop bleeding is to press hard with the thumb on the side of the wound nearest to the heart, and pressure should be kept up as hard as possible until assistance arrives. [Demonstrate this.] In a case where the would-be suicide has taken poison, give milk and make him vomit, which is done by tickling the inside of the throat with the finger or a feather, or pouring down his throat a tumbler of water mixed with a tablespoon of mustard or salt.