Hysterics.—Nervous people, especially women, get hysterics when excited, crying, laughing, and screaming. The best treatment is to shut the patient into a room and leave her entirely alone till she gets over it. Don’t try and soothe her, it only makes her worse.
Fainting.—If your patient faints and is pale—fainting comes from too little blood in the head—make him sit down, and push his head down between his knees. Pressure on a nerve (for instance, in top of eye socket) will often revive. If his face is flushed raise the head—there is too much blood in it, as in apoplexy or sunstroke.
Toothache.—This is not mentioned in most first aid instructions, and yet you can earn many blessings by knowing how to relieve it. Here is a simple way that is generally successful, especially if the offending tooth is in the upper jaw. Steep a little bit of cotton-wool in spirits of camphor. Stuff the wool into one nostril—hold the other nostril tight shut and make the patient draw in the air through the wool. The spirit is thus sucked in on to the nerve, which lies near the back of the nose, and it very quickly relieves the pain.
Fits.—A man cries out and falls, and twitches and jerks his limbs about, froths at the mouth: he is in a fit. It is no good to do anything to him before the doctor comes except to put a bit of wood or cork between his jaws, so that he does not bite his tongue. Let him sleep well after a fit.
Poisoning.—If a person suddenly falls very ill after taking food, or is known to have taken poison, the first thing to do is to make him swallow some milk or raw eggs. These seem to collect all the poison that is otherwise spread about inside him. Then, if the mouth is not stained or burnt by the poison, make him vomit if possible by giving him salt and warm water, and try tickling the inside of his throat with a feather. Then more eggs and milk, and weak tea. If the poison is an acid that burns, the patient should not be made to vomit, but milk or salad oil should be given. The patient should be kept awake if he gets drowsy.
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 vomit and throw out the obstruction. For slight choking make patient bend head well back and swallow small pills made of bread, and sip water. Sometimes a good hard smack on the back will do him good.
Choking sometimes comes from a sudden swelling inside the throat. In this case put hot steaming flannel fomentations to the neck and give the patient ice to suck or cold water to sip.
Quinsy.—When I was in the Andes Mountains in South America recently, I heard of two Englishmen who had died there not long before from choking by quinsy, simply because there was no one by who knew what to do in such a case. Everybody ought to Be Prepared to deal with quinsy if away from the help of doctors.
Most people suffer from tonsillitis at one time or another in their lives—that is a swelling of the tonsils—the round lumps of flesh on each side of the back of the throat. And sometimes, on rare occasions, the swelling becomes so great that the patient cannot breathe, the throat becomes completely blocked up. This is quinsy.