‘Because it has been found that cotton-wool lessens the pain of a burn, and helps to make it get well.’
‘How did people find this out?’
‘There is a pretty story about it, and I will tell it you:—
‘In North America the cotton plant grows—for this white wool grows on a small plant—and the plant has little pods. You know what a pod is, do you not?’
‘Yes, grandmamma; a pea has a pod, and the peas are in it.’
‘Well, the cotton plant has a pod which holds its seeds—of a different shape to the peas-pod, and not so long or so large; but the seeds are wrapped up in this soft woolly stuff, which the negroes pick and clean and wash.
‘It happened once that the little child of a poor negro woman was burnt all over—I do not know how; and as the mother had nothing to put on, she laid her little screaming child down on a heap of the picked cotton-wool, and returned to her work. After she had finished her appointed work she went to her child, and found that in its pain it had rolled about in the cotton-wool till it was covered with the wool, and was lying quiet and asleep; and the poor negro woman was very glad.
‘Some one who had seen the accident, and also seen the child asleep, examined the child, and found that the blisters had gone down, and the burnt places, which had been quite red, were nearly well.
‘After this, people tried cotton-wool for burns, and found it nearly always of the greatest service in relieving the pain and healing the injuries.’
