Health on the Farm: A Manual of Rural Sanitation and Hygiene

by H. F. Harris

The mole-skin plaster, which is used in making the splint just referred to, may be obtained in rolls of any width from all druggists; and as the plaster keeps practically indefinitely, it should be in the medicine-closet of everyone living at a distance from skilled medical aid.

After a sprained ankle the patient should wear shoes that come well up above the injured joint, and they should be laced tightly until some time after all symptoms of trouble have disappeared; it would be on the safe side to wear shoes of this kind from six months to a year, depending upon the severity of the injury.

Treating Bruises.—Bruises are not usually followed by serious consequences if properly treated. They result from injuries that tear the tissues beneath the skin to such a degree that hemorrhage from many minute blood-vessels occurs in the injured part. In the course of a few hours they often present a truly alarming appearance, being swollen and greatly discolored, but they are not as a rule followed by any permanent ill results. Where bruises are slight no treatment of any kind is required, as in a short time the effused blood is absorbed, and the part returns to a normal condition. Where more severe it is not a bad practice to cover them with flannels wrung out from hot water, the same being renewed from time to time, and the applications kept up for from six to twelve hours. Usually at the end of this time the soreness and swelling will have considerably abated, and the injured tissues quickly return to a normal condition.

The reader should be warned that under no circumstances should the skin be opened, even though it may be quite obvious that there is a bluish mass of blood immediately beneath. Where this mistake is made, infection of the injured tissues with the germs that produce pus inevitably results, and as a consequence the patient suffers with a discharging wound for a considerable period of time. In rare cases germs get into the injured parts without the skin having been opened, and there results under such circumstances a condition which closely resembles that of an ordinary abscess. The probability that this undesirable complication has arisen is shown by the swelling becoming greater and more painful some days after the injury has occurred, and under such circumstances a good physician should be at once consulted, as it will be necessary to make an incision into the diseased area.

Soothing Burns.—One of the most common and painful of injuries are burns. Small superficial burns require no particular treatment. Where, however, they are of sufficient severity to merit attention, the simplest and best of all treatments is to immerse the diseased part in cold water, and here it should remain at least some hours, or until competent medical aid can be secured. Medical treatment of injuries of this kind is not particularly satisfactory, though there are some drugs that may be used with more or less benefit. Chief among them is picric acid, which may be applied by means of a cloth wrung out of a one per cent. solution of this substance in water. Another treatment which has some merit, and which has long enjoyed a certain vogue among both medical men and the laity, is a combination of equal parts of lime-water with either olive or linseed oil; this is called carron oil and is applied in the same way as the picric acid solution. All three of the remedies referred to act largely by preventing the access of air to the burned surface, and they, therefore, may be replaced by any bland and non-poisonous substance which accomplishes like results.

Accidents from Heat and Cold.—The climate of the United States is characterized by extreme variations—there being over almost its entire extent during the winter months a series of “cold waves,” during which excessively low temperatures are often experienced,—particularly in the northern and western portions of the country. During the summer, on the other hand, we have almost everywhere periods during which the temperature goes very high—often accompanied by excessive atmospheric moisture. As a consequence of these extremes in temperature it could only be expected that we would often experience bad effects, so that serious illness, and even death, occasionally result.

Of the two extremes, excessive heat is much the more dangerous, and is by far more frequently followed by fatal results—particularly in crowded cities. Fortunately for the dwellers in rural districts the precise conditions under which excessive heat is followed by serious consequences are not so frequently encountered as in the more populous centers, and as a result we find that serious ill effects from high temperatures are by no means so common in the former as in the latter. There are, however, two quite well defined and distinct morbid conditions that are the result of high temperatures, and inasmuch as they differ in their symptoms as well as in their treatment, it will be necessary to consider them separately.

Sunstroke.—Sunstroke is characterized by a rapid onset, the patient usually complaining of an uncomfortable sense of burning heat and a feeling of dizziness and depression. Nausea, vomiting, and diarrhœa are common, frequently an intense headache, and sooner or later a muttering delirium. The patient's skin is dry and hot, the face is flushed, and the eyes suffused, and a thermometer will show a bodily temperature of from 105° to 110° or even 112°F. In fatal cases it is usually some hours before the patient dies, though sometimes he succumbs almost instantly.

When attacked, the patient should at once be removed to some shady place, and should be held in a sitting posture against any suitable object that may be at hand. The clothing should be loosened at once, and every endeavor should be directed towards lowering the temperature of the victim. This is best done by pouring ice-water or the coolest water that can be secured freely over the entire body of the patient. This treatment should be continued until the temperature approaches the normal—the vigor of the measure employed gradually decreasing, as the patient shows signs of getting better. Improvement is shown by a gradual return of consciousness.

Heat-Prostration.—Like true sunstroke, heat-prostration comes on with an extreme suddenness. The patient becomes suddenly dizzy, and sinks to the ground in a state of collapse. The skin is pale and cool, the pulse limp and weak, and the thermometer shows the temperature to be somewhat below normal. The patient should be laid on the ground in a cool, shady place, and stimulants at once given. By far the most efficient of them is a hypodermic injection of morphine and atropine, to which strychnine in appropriate doses may be added.