CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



broken and a wound in the skin communicates 

 with the fracture ; comminuted, when it is broken 

 into several small pieces. The symptoms are, 

 great mobility and a grating feeling when the 

 bones are rubbed. Directly a bone is broken, the 

 muscles contracting, displace the fragments. Here, 

 as in dislocation, the chief obstacle to reduction 

 is the muscular resistance. The surgeon must 

 place the limb in the position which relaxes the 

 muscles acting on the broken ends, and by gentle 

 extension, bring these again in apposition ; then 

 he must fix them by adjusting some mechanical 

 contrivance, as a splint of wood, pasteboard, or 

 gutta-percha, properly padded, so as not to exco- 

 riate the skin, and fasten it to the limb with a few 

 turns of a bandage. After a bone is once set, it 

 should not be disturbed except by the surgeon. 



CHOKING. Occasionally persons are choked 

 by foreign bodies getting into the upper part of 

 the throat, and so blocking up the aperture of the 

 windpipe. Sometimes a lump of soft food which 

 has stuck in the throat may be carried down by a 

 draught of water. Sometimes a fish or rabbit 

 bone scratches the lining membrane of the gullet, 

 and leaves a distressing sensation of something 

 sticking in the passage. The patient occasionally 

 becomes very nervous and anxious, and makes 

 violent attempts to get rid of it by swallowing bits 

 of bread, drinking water, &c. Before using more 

 severe surgical methods, the finger ought to be 

 passed as far as it will reach, to search for the 

 foreign body, and push it out. In all cases of 

 choking, a surgeon should be summoned at once. 

 If there be danger of immediate death, an opening 

 should be made with a penknife in the middle line 

 of the neck just below the prominence known as 

 Adam's apple. A bit of the quill of a pen should 

 be pushed into the opening, through which the 

 person can breathe. After making the incision, 

 there is a violent struggle for breath, but after- 

 wards the person will breathe quite freely. 



DROWNING. 



The following are the directions given by Dr 

 Marshall Hall, and which have been adopted, 

 with slight modifications, by the Royal National 

 Life-boat Institution and other humane societies. 

 It is important to observe that this method is 

 efficacious in still-born infants ; in infants suffo- 

 cated under the bed-clothes ; in death from 

 hanging, from noxious vapours, from narcotic 

 poisons, from chloroform, from choking, strang- 

 ling, &c. (i.) Treat the patient instantly, on the 

 spot, in the open air, exposing the face and chest 

 to the breeze. In order to clear the throat (2), 

 place the patient gently on the face, with one 

 wrist under the forehead. If there be breathing, 



ARSENIC A corrosive mineral poison. 



Symptoms. Metallic taste ; spitting, nausea, and 

 vomiting, which is occasionally mixed with blood ; 

 fainting and great heat at the throat ; severe gripings, 

 purging, and tenesmus, the stools being deep green or 

 black, and horribly offensive ; the urine scanty, red, 

 and often bloody ; palpitation of the heart ; cold 

 sweats ; itching and swelling of the body ; prostration 

 of strength ; paralysis of the feet and hands ; delirium ; 

 convulsions ; death. 

 782 



wait and watch; if not, or if it fail, endeavour to 

 EXCITE respiration by (3) turning the patient well 

 and instantly on his side, and (4) exciting the nos- 

 trils with snuff, the throat with a feather, &c. dash- 

 ing cold water on the face, &c. If there be nc 

 success, lose not a moment, but instantly IMITATI 

 respiration by (5) replacing the patient on his face, 

 raising and supporting the chest on a folded coat 

 or other article of dress. (6) Turn the body very 

 gently on the side, and a little beyond, and then 

 briskly on the face, fifteen times in a minute. 

 These measures may produce respiration, and, if 

 not too late, life. We must then induce circu- 

 lation and warmth. (7) Rub the limbs upwards, 

 with firm, grasping pressure and with energy, 

 using handkerchiefs, &c. so as to propel the blood 

 along the veins to the heart ; and, lastly (8), let 

 the limbs be thus dried and warmed, and then 

 clothed, the by-standers supplying coats, vests, &c. 

 Do not put the patient in a warm bath or allow 

 him to lie always on his back. If all of the efforts 

 above described prove unavailing in from two to 

 five minutes, one may try another plan, called 

 Sylvester's method. It is briefly this : Place the 

 patient on the back on a flat surface, inclined a 

 little upwards from the feet ; raise and support 

 the head and shoulders on a folded article 

 of dress under the shoulder-blades. Draw for- 

 ward the patient's tongue, and keep it out by a 

 bit of tape or string tied round it Loosen all 

 tight clothing about the neck and chest. Loosen 

 the braces or stays. The peculiarity of Sylvester's 

 method consists in the mode of imitating the 

 movements of natural breathing. Standing at the 

 patient's head, grasp the arms just above the 

 elbows, and draw them firmly and steadily upwards 

 above the head, and keep them stretched upwards 

 for two seconds. Thus air is drawn into the lungs. 

 Then turn down the patient's arms, and press 

 them gently and firmly for two seconds against 

 the sides of the chest. Thus air is pressed out of 

 the lungs. 



POISONS. 



By the word poison, we mean any substance 

 which, when applied to the body either externally 

 or internally, without acting mechanically, has the 

 power of producing effects injurious to life. This 

 definition is not strictly scientific, but it has a 

 practical meaning which any one can understand 

 on reading it. If a poison be swallowed, and we 

 cannot get rid of it by emetics or the stomach- 

 pump, we are obliged to administer other sub- 

 stances, which, by combining with the poison, 

 may so alter its chemical properties as to render 

 it innocuous. These latter remedies are called 

 antidotes. We give a list of some of the most 

 common poisons, arranged alphabetically for 

 facility of reference. 



Treatment. Evacuate the stomach by the stomach- 

 pump, using lime-water ; administer large draughts 

 of tepid sugar and water, chalk and water, or lime- 

 water ; avoid the use of alkalies, but administer 

 charcoal and hydrated peroxide of iron ; take a 

 tepid bath. If the fatal symptoms be averted, let the 

 patient for a long time subsist wholly on farinaceous 

 food and milk. 



