236 GENERAL SCIENCE 



or naphtha in rooms closed or not thoroughly ventilated is to 

 invite a like result from ignition of its vapor. 



When one's clothing is on fire, and when one is enveloped 

 in smoke or flame, a safe course to pursue is to throw one's 

 self to the floor where there may be some air to breathe, and 

 where the flames will pass upward and away from the body. 

 Wrapping one's self closely from neck down in several thick- 

 nesses of blanket by quickly rolling over and over in it may 

 smother the flames of burning clothing. Putting a wet 

 handkerchief over the mouth and nose lessens the danger of 

 strangulation from smoke. 



Where the skin is not broken, relief from the pain of a burn 

 may be had by putting the burned surface into cold water 

 thick with baking soda, or by keeping the burned area 

 covered with a paste of the soda. Later, soft cloths with 

 some soft ointment may be applied to keep the skin soft and 

 moist. Where blisters form, the watery liquid may be re- 

 moved by use of a sharp needle that has first been sterilized 

 by holding it a moment in a flame, or dipping it into some 

 sterilizing liquid. Where the skin is burned off medical 

 attention is necessary as infection of the wound must be 

 prevented. In binding up the wound, cotton should not 

 be put next the wound because the removal of the threads 

 later may occasion intense suffering. 



Burns seriously affecting one- third or more of the surface 

 of the body are likely to prove fatal. This result is not so 

 much from the destruction of tissue, or from infection when 

 the skin has been broken, as it is from an excessive irritation 

 of the nerve terminals and a destructive shock to the cells 

 of the nerve centres. The centres that stimulate and control 

 the organs concerned in respiration, circulation, nutrition, 

 etc., may be so affected by the shock as to fail to maintain 

 their activities. 



Many people who have suffered accident of one kind or 



