Ready remedies to be used in cases of poisoning and other accidents, where medical aid is not immediately available / by James Johnson.

  • Johnson, James, 1777-1845.
Date:
1846
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Ready remedies to be used in cases of poisoning and other accidents, where medical aid is not immediately available / by James Johnson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    or they may have laid themselves in such a posture, that their neckcloth may have choked them. The Symptoms of intoxication produced by an excess in wine or spirits, must have come under the observation of all. When alcohol has been taken in immoderate quantities, it gives rise to furious deli¬ rium or profound stupor. Instances are far from uncommon where, generally for a wager, sufficient has been taken to produce immediate insensibility, followed by death in twelve or eighteen hours. Though the habitual dram-drinker may avoid being the victim of an over-dose, yet his degrading custom as surely though more slowly saps at the root of life; the liver being over stimulated becomes diseased, the other vital organs are affected, the increasing irrita¬ bility of the stomach renders proper nourishment unavailing, the body emaciates, and death follows; or, if these do not carry off the individual, a fearful affection of the brain called delirium tremens closes the scene. Remedies : The first thing to be done with an intoxicated person, is to place him on a bed with the head and chest slightly elevated, and let all those parts of dress which confine the body be loosened or removed. If vomiting has not occurred, an emetic ought to be administered, but it must be remembered, that in cases of intoxicatiofl, the insensibility is so great, that the stomach is not readily influenced by a remedy of this kind; cold water should therefore be dashed over the face to produce a temporary con¬ sciousness, and thus aid its operation; in extreme cases, especially where the skin is cold, let bottles of hot water, or hot bricks be applied to the calves of the legs and to the feet. In the hands of the medical man, the stomach pump is a remedial means of great importance. Sleep generally follows the evacuation of the sto¬ mach, by means of which the oppressed brain regains