ot water applied to inflamed eyes for hours together, allowing
short intervals between the applications, will often cure most painful
cases.
_Never apply cold_ to inflamed eyes. It always aggravates. When the
inflammation is in a scrofulous person, especially in infants, it
assumes a purulent character, and may leave the cornea in clouded
(nebulous) condition, and the sight more or less obliterated. For this
condition use _Conium_ first, and apply it _in tinct._, half water, to
the eyes every four hours.
Wounds and Bruises.
On this subject, I must necessarily be very brief. When a wound is
inflicted, the first and most important thing to be done is to _arrest
the flow of blood_. Every one should know how to do this. The bleeding
is to be stopped, and the wounded vessels to be secured, so that no
further flow can take place.
First, then, to stop the bleeding, _pressure_ is to be made upon the
artery leading to the wound. If the wound is in the leg or foot,
pressure is to be made, either on the vessel above and near the wound,
or, where that cannot be easily found and compressed, make firm pressure
with the thumb or some hard substance, in the groin, about two and a
half inches at one side of the center of the pelvis, (wounded side) just
below the lower margin of the belly, towards the inner side of the
thigh, where the great artery (Femoral artery) can be felt pulsating. By
pressing firmly upon this artery, the blood is arrested in its flow into
the limb, and of course the bleeding from the wound soon ceases. If the
wound is in the arm or hand, _pressure_ is to be made, either just above
the wound, or on the inside of the arm, about one-third of the way from
the shoulder to the elbow, where the artery (Brachial) can be felt. To
secure the parts from further bleeding, the wounded artery must be taken
up and tied. Let it be seized by forceps, or the point of a needle may
be thrust into it, and the vessel stretched out a little, a thread put
round it and tied; cut off one end of the tie, and let the other hang
out of the wound, until it comes out by the vessel sloughing off. Bring
the lips of the wound together, and if it is large, put in stitches
enough to hold them, and put on an adhesive plaster, compress of cloths,
and bandages to keep it from straining the stitches, and protect it from
the air. The _Arnica_ plaster, made by JOHN HALL, of Cleveland, is the
best adhesive plaster of which I have any knowledge. G
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