Common accidents and how to treat them / by Andrew Wilson and others.

  • Wilson, Andrew, 1852-1912.
Date:
1886
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Common accidents and how to treat them / by Andrew Wilson and others. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    22/138 (page 12)
    such an event, suflfocation from swelling of the throat is liable to occur. The doctor ought to be sent for at once. Meanwhile, the child should be wrapped in a blanket, and studiously guarded against the effects of the shock to the system ; while, in the endeavour to allay the swelling and irritation, sponges or flannels dipped in hot water should be kept to the throat. Dr. Yoigt, in a recent number of the Lancet, has the following valuable hints on a form of dressing which he has found extremely useful in the treatment of burns and scalds. In two cases, this dressing at once removed the disagreeable odour, etc., which often attends burns exhibiting a lack of healing power. The advantage of this dressing is that it can be left undisturbed for a number (four or five) of days. A dressing which throws a constant antiseptic steam into the wound can be readily prepared. Plain ordinary gauze, unimpregnated with any other antiseptie material, can be kept (till required for use) soaking in pure eucaly^ctus oil. Before being put on the wound (or burn) which is to^e dressed, strips of this eucalyptus gauze are squeezed as dry as possible and then steeped in eucalyptus and olive oil (1 in 5). Thus prepared, the strips of gauze are put on the wound, and immediately over them are applied some folds of ordinary absorbent cotton-wool, which have been freshly wrung out of the pure eucalyptus oil. The thickness of this dressing can be made to vary with the amount of discharge expected from the wound, and, if thought necessary, some dry antiseptic absorbent dressing material can be put outside this moist eucalyptus dressing. The wool, impregnated with eucalyptus, however, very soon dries at the temperature of the body, and its power as an absorbing dressing is higher than one would at first suppose. The deep dressing may be as above described, or may consist of gauze strips steeped in a solution of eucalyptus oil in rectified spirit (1 in 8). In twenty cases treated in Professor Busch's wards (Bonn), the pure undiluted oil was applied directly on wounded surfaces without causing the least pain, even in children. I should like to add that a very handy application for burns and scalds, as well as for ordinary abrasions, is found in the Chrisma of Messrs. Allen and Hanbury, which is a pure product derived from crude petroleum, devoid of smell and taste, and possessing the valuable property of never becoming rancid. A friend has also called my attention to Quebascho (a South American bark), of which a pure extract is manufactured by Messrs. Brown, of Earringdon-road, London. This fluid applied on lint, 1 am