Chapter XI: Two Boys Are Late

TWO boys were absent when the class met for the next lesson.

“How disappointed I am,” said Miss Helpem. “This is the first time anyone has missed a lesson.”

“Perhaps Tom and Jim will come late,” suggested Ibee Brave, and just as he spoke steps were heard.

Ibee opened the door and in came the two boys. Jim was holding a handkerchief to his nose, which was bleeding profusely.

“He didn’t want to come in,” explained Tom to the nurse, “but I told him you could make it stop. He said he didn’t believe so, for he’d tried everything. He kept saying he ought to lie down, and I kept saying he ought to sit up to keep the blood from flowing so easily.”

Tom stopped to take a breath. You see he had great confidence in Miss Helpem’s first-aid help ever since his experience with his “black eye.”

“You were right, Tom,” said Miss Helpem, showing Jim to a seat before the class. “If you do not mind, Jim, I will give the boys their lesson now on what to do for—

NOSEBLEED

(_See Reference List_)

1. Sit patient upright.

2. Raise arm on bleeding side.

3. Wrap neck and forehead with towels dipped in _cold_
water.

4. Sniff ice water and salt up nostrils. One-half
teaspoon salt to a glass of water.

5. Place a piece of ice under the upper lip. Hold ice,
wrapped in cloth, on the bridge of the nose.

6. If bleeding still continues, use a small piece of
absorbent cotton as a wedge or plug or cork. Fasten
a thread to the cotton—to be used to remove it. Dip
it into peroxide of hydrogen, and push gently into
bleeding nostril with a pencil.

Shesa Brave brought the articles needed as Miss Helpem worked, and in a very few seconds after the nurse had used the cotton wedge, Jim’s nose stopped bleeding.

It was an excellent lesson for the boys, who didn’t realize that the next day they would only be dolls, whose noses may break, but not bleed. Still, if you can remember what to do, those dolls will never mind.

After Jim took his usual place Miss Helpem continued the lesson.

“Let me see,” she said, “I think, after nosebleed, perhaps the next most common complaints are earache and toothache and a few other little aches.

“Now, as to—

EARACHE

(_See Reference List_)

This dreadful pain is generally caused by hardening of
the wax in the ear from cold. _To prevent_ wax from
hardening, use a little common _red_ (unbleached)
vaseline in the ear.

_Treatment:_

Hold ear over a cloth wrung out of hot water on which
is sprinkled some pure alcohol.

With a medicine dropper, drop into ear some warm olive
oil; or saturate a small piece of absorbent cotton with
the warm olive oil, and place in ear—cover with dry
cotton.

(Mothers often use one drop of laudanum in the olive
oil, but laudanum is too dreadful a poison for children
to handle.)

For watery discharge after earache, it is best to see a
doctor, but a sprinkling of boric acid in the ear will
usually relieve the trouble.

If earache recurs often, see the doctor.

FOR INSECT IN THE EAR

Drown insect by filling ear with warm olive oil.

(Mothers sometimes pour a little pure alcohol into the
ear to drown and shrink insect.)

FOR “SOMETHING” IN THE EYE

1. Wink—do not rub.

2. Hold upper lid over under lid, and blow opposite
nostril.

Remember that almost always an object in the eye will
work itself out if the eye is kept closed.

Wash the eye with boric acid solution in an eye-cup.[H]

TOOTHACHE

As soon as possible see a dentist. There would be but
little toothache if children were taken _in time_ to
a good dentist. This applies even to _first teeth_,
for if first teeth are neglected, the second teeth are
affected.

_Treatment:_

If the tooth feels long, with a throbbing pain, there
is trouble with the nerve. Paint gum with iodine, being
careful not to swallow any. For painting, use a small
ball of cotton twisted or tied fast to the end of a
toothpick. Never dip the used cotton back into the
iodine.

If the tooth aches, look for a cavity, clean out the
cavity with a toothpick.

Fill cavity with absorbent cotton wet with essence of
peppermint or red pepper water or oil of cloves, and
cover with dry cotton.

SPLINTERS

Be careful not to break splinter; pull it out from
direction in which it entered.

If no end appears above the skin, open the skin with a
needle, _but dip the needle into alcohol first to kill
germs_.

Every medicine closet should contain a splinter
extractor or tweezers. They cost from five to ten cents.

HICCOUGH

Hiccough is usually caused by indigestion.

_Treatment:_

A few soda-mint tablets are generally helpful.

Nine or more swallows of water without breathing is a
good old-fashioned remedy. So, also, is holding a deep
breath.

If hiccough continues, mothers usually give children a
cup of warm water in which is dissolved a half teaspoon
mustard powder—to cause the child to “throw up”
whatever is causing trouble in the stomach.

“Now, I see some of you shuddering,” laughed the nurse, “and no one can blame you, but sometimes hiccough becomes very serious, and it is better to take the nasty dose of mustard water than to endanger the heart’s action from hiccoughing. But just to console you, I will give some hints as to—

HOW TO STOP NAUSEA (SICK STOMACH)

Cracked ice[I] held in the mouth, and allowed to melt
slowly is excellent.

Soda mint is good.

CHILLS

Chills usually show that a person is going to be ill.
See a doctor.

Never cool off suddenly. Do not sit down in a cool,
breezy place when in a perspiration. It is very
dangerous and has caused many a person to “catch his
death of cold.”

If a person becomes chilled from exposure:

1. Use hot-water bags (or stones or bricks, heated in
the oven) or hot stove lids or flatirons, covered with
paper or cloth to prevent burning the patient. Place
them under the arms and at the feet.

2. Rub the patient’s limbs toward the body.

3. Give hot coffee or tea or hot lemonade.

4. Keep well wrapped.

5. Give a hot foot bath in which is a teaspoonful
powdered mustard.

6. Wrap in blanket and put to bed.

FAINTING

(_See Reference List_)

Fainting is caused when too small an amount of blood
flows to the head.

_To Prevent:_

Oftentimes, bending the head forward until between the knees, spreading knees apart, prevents a person from fainting, for the blood then flows to the head.

_To restore a person who has fainted:_

Keep people away. Patient needs air.

Lay patient flat on floor with no pillow, having fresh
air in room. Fan patient.

Loosen clothing about neck.

Hold household ammonia or smelling salts to nose.

Dash a little cold water in face.

Coffee may be given after patient recovers
consciousness.

“That is all the lesson for to-day,” said the assistant nurse, “and you’ve all been so attentive that I would like to give you a reward.”

“I don’t think that we need any reward, Miss Helpem,” said Tom Holden, “when you’ve done so much for us all, already. Gee, you make me feel like being a doctor when I grow up!”

“I hope not all of you feel that way,” laughed Miss Helpem. “A doctor in a town full of doctors would have a difficult time making a living.”

“That’s not true of first-aiders though,” said Tom.

FOOTNOTES:

[H] To use an eye-cup, fill it about three-quarters full; hold it over the eye while bending the head forward. Throw head back, holding cup over eye, and open and shut eye several times.

[I] An easy way to crack ice is to place a piece about the size of your fist in a strong piece of cloth, and hammer it into bits.

To keep ice chips, lay a piece of wool flannel over a small sieve, and place the chipped ice on this, allowing it to drain into a bowl. Wrap the flannel over the ice. This keeps the warm air out from the ice and the cold air in.