A supply of bandages will also be needed. Each bandage should be two inches in width by six feet in length.
Dressing case.—The traveller should provide himself with a surgical dressing case. A suitable one should contain 1 pair of scissors, 1 pair of Spencer Wells’ artery forceps, 1 probe, 1 scoop and grooved director, 1 knife with two blades, 1 small saw with a detachable handle, and a packet containing silk, wire, needles, and pins.
All active poisons mentioned in the following pages are marked with an asterisk (*).
Aloin Co. tablets.—One taken three times a day after meals, in chronic constipation, gradually reduced as bowels become regular.
Alum.—Dose, five to ten grains. Is occasionally used as an internal astringent in the treatment of diarrhœa.
A solution containing five grains to the ounce of water may be used as a mouth wash for bleeding or inflamed gums, as a gargle for relaxed and sore throats, or as a lotion for inflamed eyes.
Ten to twenty ounces of a solution containing five grains to the ounce is sometimes used as an enema to check the diarrhœa in chronic dysentery.
The tablet of alum weighs ten grains.
Ammonia.—Three preparations of ammonia, viz., Sal volatile, Carbonate of ammonia, and Liquor ammoniæ, are extremely valuable as stimulants, and in this respect they are to be preferred to alcohol. All three are similar in their action, and are useful on account of their stimulating effect upon the heart in cases of fainting, or collapse caused by snake-bite, bullet-wound, or other injury; they relieve spasm, and promote sweating in feverish states. They also cause free expectoration, and are therefore useful in the later stages of bronchitis.