wo or three, as the case may be. Taking three pills, every night,
will generally relieve constipation in an adult.

CHAPTER XXII.

ON ACCIDENTS AND ANTIDOTES.

When serious accidents occur, medical aid should be immediately
procured. Till that can be done, the following directions may be useful.

When a child has any thing in its throat, first try, with the finger, to
get the article up. If this cannot be done, push it down into the
stomach, with a smooth elastic stick. If the article be a pin, sharp
bone, glass, or other cutting substance, give an emetic which will
immediately operate.

In the case of a common cut, bind the lips of the wound together, with a
rag, and put nothing else on. If the cut be large, and so situated that
rags will not bind it together, use sticking plaster, cut in strips and
laid obliquely across the cut. Sometimes it is needful to take a stitch,
with a needle and thread, on each lip of the wound, and draw the two
sides together.

If an artery be cut, it must be immediately tied up, or the person will
bleed to death. The blood from an artery is of a bright red color, and
spirts out, in regular jets, at each beat of the heart. Take up the
bleeding end of the artery, and hold it, or tie it up, till a surgeon
comes. When the artery cannot be found, and in all cases of bad cuts on
any of the limbs, apply compression; when it can be done, tie a very
tight bandage above the wound, if it be below the heart, and _below_ if
the wound be above the heart. Put a stick into the band, and twist it as
tight as can be borne, till surgical aid be obtained.

Bathe bad bruises in hot water, or hot spirits, or a decoction of bitter
herbs. _Entire rest_, is the remedy for sprains. Bathing in warm water,
or warm whiskey is very useful. A sprained leg should be kept in a
horizontal position, on a bed or sofa.

When a leg is broken, tie it to the other leg, to keep it still; and,
if possible, get a surgeon, before the limb swells. Bind a broken arm to
a piece of shingle, and keep it still, till it is set.

In case of a blow on the head, or a fall, causing insensibility, use a
mustard paste on the back of the neck and pit of the stomach, and rub
the body with spirits. After the circulation is restored, bleeding is
often necessary; but it is very dangerous to attempt it before.

In cases of bad burns, where the skin is taken off, the great aim should
be, _to keep the injured part from the air_. For th