Drowning. A strenuous effort should be made to restore breathing in the apparently drowned and so do not consider your attempt as futile until you have thoroughly employed the method suggested below for two hours. You first
(a) Get the water out of the patient’s lungs by loosening all his clothes, laying him on his stomach and turn his face to one side. Now standing astride of his hips grasp him about the waist and raise the hips so that the head and feet touch the ground in order that the water may gravitate out of the lungs.
(b) Again laying the patient on his stomach, head turned aside and with his arms extended above his head he is given artificial respiration after the so-called Schaefer or prone method as follows:
(c) Lung Compression. You kneel on the ground straddling the patient’s hips and facing his head. Place your hands so that the little finger closes over the end of the lowest rib and the heel of your hands so placed on the sides as to allow you to exert all your strength downward from your shoulders until the patient’s lower chest region is compressed. You hold this compression for three seconds and then remove the hands and allow the patient’s chest to refill. Repeat the compression and lung refilling fifteen times a minute for two hours if necessary.
(d) After breathing is established keep the patient in a recumbent position until breathing is regular and put him in a warm place and surround his body with heat in some form such as heated stones wrapped in cloths, hot blankets, etc. If available for use aromatic spirits of ammonia on a handkerchief held to the nose is stimulating.
Colds. Take a hot bath and a heroic dose of physic. For the aches and pains take aspirin tablets (grains 5 each) one every hour for 4 doses then one every 4 hours. If the throat is sore gargle with salt water.
Diarrhœa and stomach cramps may be due to bad water or improper food. The results are bowel pain and too frequent movements and general weakness. Stop all food and rest the patient in bed entirely. Take a purge and after three good movements take a Sun Cholera tablet each hour until three are taken then one every three hours. If without medicine use flour mixed with water.
In Sunstroke the skin stops perspiring, the skin over the ribs is hot and dry, the face red and the head feels great pressure of too much blood. Get to a cool place, lie down, loosen the clothing and bathe the face, chest and wrists in cold water and drink as much water as wanted. In Heat Exhaustion the conditions are opposite—the face is pale and the skin sweaty. You need stimulants such as tea or coffee and are not to bathe the skin.
CHAPTER XIII
WINTER TRAVEL AFOOT
FROM the standpoint of pure pedestrianism winter travel usually has but little appeal yet it represents to the uninitiated marvelous revelations in scenic display, for the sedentarian, who is housed in the vitiated air of stuffy steam heated offices, a stimulation to the highest degree of physical well being, and, being feasible, projects one’s vacation opportunities to include the year around.