HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



97 



PRO GLORIA DEI: PRO UTILITATE HOMINUM. 



By Dr. ALFRED J. H. CRESPI. 

 Examiner, Hon. Life Member and Lecturer, St. John Ambulance Association. 



[Continued from f. 55.] 



^M J^rjF^i HE description of the 

 body over, whether 

 confined to one or 

 extended to three or 

 four lectures, the 

 instructor touches 

 upon the theory of 

 the circulation, the 

 mechanism of the 

 heart, and the 

 course of the great 

 arteries and veins ; 

 shows where im- 

 portant blood-ves- 

 sels are commonly 

 injured, and dwells 

 at length and makes 

 clear, with the aid 

 of diagrams, the 

 points to which 

 particular attention should be directed. He com- 

 pels his listeners to understand that the circulation 

 takes place in an intricate system of closed elastic 

 tubes, called arteries and veins, and informs them 

 that whenever hemorrhage occurs, and in whatever 

 part of the body, it ought at once to be controlled, 

 and such control can be effected by pressure 

 skilfully and properly applied. Never mind how 

 terrible the gush of blood, never mind how 

 trifling the flow, it should be controlled, and it 

 must never be forgotten that the sufferer can nearly 

 always restrain hemorrhage from his own body. 

 Now comes what may be called the peculiar beauty 

 of the instruction. Had the lecturer to teach the 

 application of complicated surgical contrivances, its 

 practical value,would be small, those appliances would 

 not be forthcoming in the hour of need, nor, when they 

 could be got, would any, save dexterous surgeons, 

 be able to apply them properly ; but pressure is the 

 only thing needful, and to apply it a circlet of rag, 

 No. 305. — May 1890. 



or linen, or indiarubber, a ring, in short, of any 

 suitable and soft portion of the clothing is all that is 

 needed — a pad can be made with a stone wrapped in 

 a handkerchief; then, when the pad is laid on the 

 artery, and the circlet is put round the limb and 

 loosely tied, the introduction of a short stick or an 

 open penknife is sufficient, and the latter should be 

 twisted round and round until the hemorrhage ceases. 

 One-fourth of the deaths on the battle-field are, it is 

 said, due to uncontrolled hemorrhage ; and, although 

 this estimate may not be strictly accurate, many lives 

 are undoubtedly annually sacrificed by loss of blood, 

 while in many instances, in which death does not 

 occur, recovery is retarded by hemorrhage, which a 

 simple contrivance would control. Some ingenuity 

 is needed in applying an extemporised tourniquet, 

 and in acquiring the necessary dexterity the pupil 

 has no cause to complain that he is wasting his 

 time. 



The next stage is the first treatment of those 

 commonest of accidents, broken bones. The strength 

 of bone is an inexhaustible topic, and greatly astonishes 

 students ; but even the thigh bone, the largest and 

 heaviest in the body, can be broken, and the points 

 where fractures occur are shown, and the importance 

 of delicate handling insisted upon. Then comes the 

 practical part, the adaptation of local supports ; here 

 too there is great scope for ingenuity on the part of 

 pupils and ability on that of teacher. No complicated 

 and costly iron, steel, ivory or whalebone splints are 

 called for ; the guiding principle to be insisted upon 

 is to handle the limb delicately, to surround it with 

 some kind of soft padding, such as wool, linen, grass, 

 or hay, and to put over this padding some simple 

 supports, such as a few stout newspapers, a piece of 

 brown paper, a great-coat, or a book cover, and 

 finally, to keep padding and extemporised splints 

 firmly in place by means of bandages. No bone can 

 be broken in any part of its course, nor can an 

 accident occur anywhere — in the open country, in the 



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