“Well,” we replied, “we would empty the bottles, clean them, and use them for better purposes, as they may be required, and the box you might give to your daughter as a workbox.”
But another person standing near was not disposed to think so lightly of the matter, and told the chemist that he ought to telegraph at once to the people who had had the impertinence to send a respectable chemist such a concern, saying, “If you do not remove your rubbish within twenty-four hours, I’ll sue you for warehouse room.”
These homœopathic cases are very popular, and many persons buy them thinking that they can do what they pretend to do. We cannot warn you too strongly against purchasing these things. Avoid them as you would poison. No, we do not mean to be taken literally. There are no poisons in these chests. We have a law which prevents the indiscriminate sale of poison.
Now let us describe our medicine chest. Oh, let us see what we want it for before we fit it up.
You do not want a medicine chest to contain everything you may require. You want it to contain everything that is absolutely necessary for emergencies. There are practically three classes of emergencies—injuries, acute poisoning, and acute disease.
The surgical part of the box is far more important than the medical part. Let us talk about injuries first. Bleeding requires instantaneous treatment. If a person wounds a big vessel, she may bleed to death in half a minute or less. So you must act at once if you wish to be of any value.
You can stop bleeding of any kind instantly by pressure. Never forget this. Never go running about to look for a tourniquet or what not when a great vessel has been cut. Press on the bleeding place. Press at once. You do not want very much force to compress an artery; but the force must be continuous. When you have stopped the flow of blood, then think of sending for assistance. When a person is bleeding from a deep wound, press the lips of the wound together. Not the edges only—this is no good. Press the complete thickness of the lips of the wound together. If you cannot do this, stuff your handkerchief into the wound and press on that.
A not uncommon cause of bleeding to death is rupture of a varicose vein. Hundreds of thousands of women have varicose veins, but in very few do the veins rupture. Still, if a vein does get torn and the patient does not know what to do, her life will be lost while seeking assistance.
If you have a varicose vein, it will almost for certain be in the leg, and if it bursts, you will feel the hot stream of blood and rapidly become faint. When this occurs, lie down on the floor and elevate the leg as high as you can. This alone may stop the bleeding. If it does not, press your finger on the spot, and then send or call out for assistance. The slightest pressure will stop bleeding from a vein.
In these cases of serious bleeding, send for a surgeon as soon as you have applied pressure. In all probability the vessel will have to be tied. But if the nearest surgeon is two or three hundred miles away, keep up the pressure and get someone else to put on a bandage pressing very tightly upon a pad, which in its turn presses upon the bleeding vessel.