Boy Scouts Handbook Part 60

A roll of paper under the upper lip, between it and the gum, will also help. When the bleeding still continues shove a cotton or gauze plug into the nostrils, leaving it there until the bleeding stops.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Position of hands.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Chair carry.]

Earache

This is likely to result seriously and a doctor should be consulted in order to prevent bad results with possible loss of hearing. Hot cloths, a bag of heated salt, or a hot bottle applied to the ear will often cure earache. A few drops of alcohol on a hot cloth so placed that the alcohol fumes enter the ear will often succeed. If neither is effective, heat a few drops of sweet oil as hot as you can stand, put a few drops in the ear and plug with cotton. Be careful that it is not too hot.

Toothache

Remember that toothache indicates something seriously wrong with the teeth which can only be permanently corrected {276} by a dentist. In toothache if you can find a cavity, clean it out with a small piece of cotton or a toothpick. Then plug it with cotton, on which a drop of oil of cloves has been put if you have it. If no cavity is found, soak a piece of cotton in camphor and apply it to the outside of the gum.

Hot cloths and hot bottles or bags will help in toothache, just as they do in earache.

Inflammation of the Eye

Cover with a cloth wrung out in cold water and change cloths from time to time when they get warm. See a doctor in order to safeguard your sight.

Cramp or Stomachache

This is usually due to the irritation produced by undigested food. A hot bottle applied to the stomach or rubbing will often give relief. A little peppermint in hot water and ginger tea are both excellent remedies. The undigested matter should be gotten rid of by vomiting or a cathartic.

Remember this kind of pain is sometimes due to something serious and if it is very severe or continues for some time, it is much safer to send for a doctor.

Hiccough

This is due to indigestion. Holding the breath will often cure, as will also drinking a full gla.s.s of water in small sips without taking a breath. If these fail vomiting is an almost certain remedy.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Arm carry.]

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Chills

In order to stop a chill drink hot milk or hot lemonade and get into bed. Plenty of covers should be used, and hot water bottles or hot milk or lemonade help to warm one quickly.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Improvised stretcher.]

Carrying Injured

A severely injured person is always best carried on a stretcher. The easiest stretcher for a scout to improvise is the coat stretcher. For this two coats and a pair of poles are needed. The sleeves of the coat are first turned inside out. The coats are then placed on the ground with their lower sides touching each other. The poles are pa.s.sed through the sleeves on each side, the coats are b.u.t.toned up with the b.u.t.ton side down. A piece of carpet, a blanket, or sacking can be used in much the same way as the coat, rolling in a portion at each side.

Shutters and doors make fair stretchers. In order not to jounce the patient in carrying him the bearers should break step. The bearer in front steps off with the left foot and the one in the rear with the right. A number of different methods for carrying a patient by two bearers are practiced. The four-handed {278} seat is a very good one.

To make this each bearer grasps his left wrist in his right hand, and the other bearer's right wrist in his left hand with the backs of the hands uppermost. The {279} bearers then stoop and place the chair under the sitting patient who steadies himself by placing his arms around their necks.

[Ill.u.s.tration: First position.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fireman's lift.]

It will sometimes be necessary for one scout to carry an injured comrade. The scout should first turn the patient on his face; he then steps astride his body, facing toward the patient's head, and, with hands under his arm-pits, lifts him to his knees; then, clasping hands over the abdomen, lifts him to his feet; he then, with his left hand, seizes the patient by the left wrist and draws his left arm around his (the bearer's) neck and holds it against his left chest, the patient's left side resting against his body, and supports him with his right arm about the waist. The scout, with his left hand, seizes the right wrist of the patient and draws the arm over his head and down upon his shoulder, then, s.h.i.+fting himself in front, stoops and clasps the right thigh with his right arm pa.s.sed between the legs, his right hand seizing the patient's right wrist; lastly, the scout, with his left hand, grasps the patient's left hand, and steadies it against his side when he arises.

WATER ACCIDENTS

_Wilbert E. Longfellow, United States Volunteer Life Saving Corps_

The scout's motto, "Be Prepared," is more than usually applicable to the work of caring for accidents which happen in the water.

To save lives, the scout must know first how to swim, to care for himself, and then to learn to carry another and to break the clutch, the "death grip," which we read so much about in the newspaper accounts of drowning accidents. By constant training, a boy, even though not a good swimmer, can be perfectly at home in the water, fully dressed, undressed, or carrying a boy of his own size or larger.

In fact two boys of twelve or fourteen years can save a man.

Swimming

For physical development the breast stroke is useful, for it is one that is used in carrying a tired swimmer and is used to go to the bottom for lost articles and to search for a person who has sunk before help has reached him. It is possible, you know, to go to the bottom and bring a body to the surface and swim with it to sh.o.r.e before life is extinct and to restore consciousness by well-directed efforts. The body of an unconscious person weighs little when wholly or partially submerged and {280} in salt water weighs less than in fresh water, and is consequently more readily carried. Training makes a small boy the equal or superior of an untrained boy much larger and of greater strength, and the way to learn to carry a drowning person is to carry a boy who is not drowning to get used to handling the weights. A little struggle now and then lends realism to the work and increases the skill of the scout candidate for a life saver's rating.

Speed swimming for itself alone is a very selfish sport so that the scout should develop his ability to make it generally useful to others.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Breast stroke for tired swimmer.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Under-arm carry.]

Floating

After the breast stroke is learned, floating on the back for rest and swimming on the back, using feet only for propulsion, leaving the hands free to hold a drowning person, should be learned. This can be readily acquired with a little practice, carrying the hands on the surface of the water, arms half bent, with the elbows close to the sides at the waist line. To carry a man this way the hands are placed at either side of the {281} drowning man's head and he is towed floating on his back, the rescuer swimming on his back, keeping the other away. It is well to remember to go with the tide or current, and do not wear your strength away opposing it. Other ways of carrying are to place the hands beneath the arms of the drowning man, or to grasp him firmly by the biceps from beneath, at the same time using the knee in the middle of his back to get him into a floating position, the feet acting as propellers. Methods which enable the rescuer's use of one arm in addition to the feet are known as the "German army" and the "cross shoulder." In the first, the swimmer approaches the drowning person from the back, pa.s.ses the left arm under the other's left arm, across in front of the chest, and firmly grasps the right arm, either by the biceps or below the elbow, giving him control. This leaves the right arm to swim with. The other one-arm hold mentioned is one in which the rescuer pa.s.ses an arm over {282} the shoulder of the one to be carried, approaching from the back as before, and getting a hold under the other's arm, which makes the drowning man helpless. The breast stroke carry previously mentioned is used only for helping a tired swimmer, and one in possession of his faculties who will not try to grasp the rescuer. The tired swimmer lies on the back and, extending his arms fully in front, rests a hand on either shoulder of the swimmer who rests facing him in the regular breast position allowing the feet of the other to drop between his own. Quite good speed can be made in this way, and all of these methods are practical as a trial will show. A little practice will enable the beginner to see which he can do most readily and then he can perfect himself in it for instant use.

{281}

[Ill.u.s.tration: Swimming on back without hands.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Head carry-swim on back.]