HOW TO KEEP FROM DROWNING.—To keep from drowning it is advisable, but not necessary, to know how to swim. The human body in the water weighs little more than a pound; so that one finger placed upon a piece of board, an oar or a paddle, will easily keep the head above water, and the feet and the other hand can be used to propel the body toward the shore. It is all important for the person in the water to breathe and keep a cool head, and the mouth closed.
[400 MOTHERS' REMEDIES]
HOW TO FIND DROWNED PERSONS.—Make a board raft, ten or twelve feet square. Cut a round hole in the center, eight or ten inches in diameter. Lie down on the raft with the face over the hole, covering the head with a coat or shawl, to exclude the light. By this contrivance the rays of the light are concentrated directly under the raft, and objects of any size can be seen a considerable distance below the surface. Tow the raft over the place where the drowned person is supposed to be. If the body has just gone under and no raft can be provided at once, dive or drag the bottom with line and hooks. The important object is to rescue the body at the earliest possible moment. If the body is not rescued, it will rise to the surface within a week or ten days.
Three hundred lives are lost in Michigan every year from drowning. If by studying and learning how to carry out the directions in this article, you can be a life saver at some critical moment, the few moments spent in careful reading will be well repaid. Master the directions so that you will be able to do everything possible in case of accident.
ELECTRIC SHOCK, ETC.—In suffocation by smoke or any poisonous gas, as also by hanging if the neck is not broken, and in suspended breathing from effects of chloroform, hydrate of chloral, or electric shock, remove all obstructions to breathing, instantly loosen or cut apart all neck and waist bands, taking special pains to keep the head very low, and placing the body face downward, to prevent closure of the windpipe by the tongue falling back. Then proceed to induce artificial respiration the same as in drowning, described above.
BATHING IN SEWAGE POLLUTED WATERS IS DANGEROUS.—Cases have been reported where typhoid fever has been contracted by bathing in streams below cities and villages. Probably this occurred through accidentally or carelessly taking the infected water into the mouth. No person should bathe in an ordinary stream just below any city or village, or other source of sewage or privy drainage, or in any harbor or lake near the entrance into it of a sewer or the drainage of a privy.
POISONS
An antidote is something given that counteracts poison, such as soda, chalk, magnesia, soap, whiting, milk mixed with magnesia, soda diluted, etc., followed by whites of eggs and bland drinks such as flaxseed tea, slippery elm tea, quince seed tea, and sweet or castor oil given after regular antidote.
For Shock, inject hot black coffee into the rectum.
Emetic is some medicine given to produce vomiting. The simplest emetic is mustard and warm water. If one does not know what poison has been taken, the best thing to do is to give an emetic first.