ACCIDENTS. 427 
Take him out, move into a cool place, and wash with cold 
water. A hot drink of composition will finish the cure, if the 
injury is not beyond recovery. 
NOXIOUS VAPOURS, GASES, &c. 
Expose the patient to the open air, dash cold water on the 
face ; use the means for respiration in drowning. 
ACCIDENTS WITH POISONS, 
(See page 177.) 
HANGING OR CHOKING. 
In hanging, after cutting down loosen the rope and any 
clothing about the neck and chest; place the patient in an 
easy position, give a dose of antispasmodic tincture; if you 
cannot get it down the throat, give it by injection ; put a hot 
brick to the feet and sides. This treatment may restore, 
providing the neck is not broken. Choking by food sticking 
in the air passage generally happens with children. The 
custom of clapping them on the back will be first adopted. 
Examine or feel if you can remove the morsel with your 
fingers. A small pair of bent forceps, if at hand, may reach 
it. Ifthe patient is getting black in the face, and an almost 
certainty of death, there is no time to run for a doctor, cut 
into the wind-pipe in this manner: Midway between the 
projection called Adam’s apple and the top of the breast-bone, 
where you may feel the wind-pipe, make a perpendicular cut, 
about halfan inch ; put on some of the blood stauncher, (page 
408), if you have it ; if not, cut down till you come to the 
wind-pipe, pierce that carefully, then slip in a hollow, small 
tube, an open quill or pen-holder, or anything that will keep 
the wound open and let in and out the breath. Some of the 
faculty may blame us for giving such advice, but the proverb 
comes to our rescue—A drowning man will catch at a straw. 
If it is the only chance, why not use it? Get medical help 
if you can. 
