In applying heat, one should be ever on the watch to avoid burning a patient. The skin of babies, children, old people, and of those who have been ill a long time, is very easily burned. Again, the same heat that is easily tolerated by one person, may burn another.

_Hot water bags_ or their subst.i.tute, electric pads or metal heaters should always be wrapped in towels or have their own coverings. Never fill a hot water bag more than two-thirds full. The water should not be hot enough to scald a patient if the bag should spring a leak. Before putting in the cork, expel the air by twisting the upper part between the neck and the level of the water before putting in the cork. Be sure to cork tightly. If the bag is to be where the patient will bear the weight, put in a very little water and renew from time to time. Where there is no hot water bag, stone bottles may be used, or bags of salt or sand may be heated in the oven. The practice of using ordinary gla.s.s bottles is an unsafe one, as the corks are not always to be depended on to stay tight and the gla.s.s breaks easily. When bags of salt or sand are used the coverings should be thick enough to prevent the particles from sifting through. Pieces of flannel the right size may in some cases supply all the heat that is necessary. They should be covered with another flannel to keep in the warmth.

_To make a mustard plaster._ Have ready a piece of old muslin (a piece of an old nightgown will do) two inches wide and two inches longer than twice the length of the poultice required. On one end of it, with a margin of an inch on three sides, place a piece of oiled paper or shelf paper or a piece of clean paper bag, the size you wish the poultice to be. Mix one tablespoonful of mustard with 8 tablespoonfuls of flour, before wetting. Have water about as hot as the hand can stand. Do not use boiling water. Stir the water into the mustard and flour gradually so that it will not lump. Make the paste stiff enough to spread thinly on the paper, about a quarter of an inch thick. Turn the margins of the cloth over the paste. Fold the long end over so that all the paste is covered and tuck the end under the turned-in edges of the sides. Fold it and take it to the patient in a hot towel or between hot plates. The skin where it is to be placed should be oiled. Test the heat by holding it against the back of your own hand. Put on slowly and leave for two minutes. Watch and remove sooner if the skin becomes reddened or if it is uncomfortable. After removing wipe away the moisture from the skin and cover with a soft piece of muslin, and place a piece of flannel over that. A blister after a mustard paste shows very careless nursing. Never let a patient go to sleep with a mustard plaster on.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ADMINISTERING AN INHALATION]

_Fomentations or stupes_ are pieces of flannel wrung out of very hot water and placed on the skin. They should be two or three times as large as the part to be treated, and should be applied as hot as the patient can bear them, without burning the skin. Have two sets, so that one set will be ready to put on when the other is taken off. The stupes should be wrung as dry as possible and as they must be very hot to do any good, a fomentation wringer is a great protection for the hands. One may be made by putting halves of a broom handle through the ends of a short roller towel in the middle of which the fomentation has been placed. By twisting the sticks in the opposite direction the fomentation can be wrung very dry. Take it to the bed in the wringer and do not open until ready to place on the skin, as it will lose its heat very quickly. Put a little oil or vaseline on the skin and apply the fomentation gradually.

Cover with a dry flannel and put wadding over that. A piece of oiled skin or oiled paper between the wadding and the dry flannel helps to keep in the heat and moisture. Hold in place with a towel or binder pinned tightly.

_Cold_ is applied by means of ice bags and by cold compresses. In filling an ice bag the ice should be in small pieces, and the bag not too full. Expel the air as from a hot water bag. Cover with a towel or a cover for the purpose. Never put the rubber near the skin, it may freeze if so left. Besides, the cover absorbs the moisture that collects on the outside as the ice melts.

_Cold compresses_ are a common remedy for headache. Old handkerchiefs are excellent for this purpose. Fold in frayed edges, two or three thicknesses will be heavy enough, and have two, large enough to cover the forehead. Wring one out of ice water so that it will not drip, and put on the forehead. Keep the other on a piece of ice and change the two applications frequently. When applied to the neck a dry cloth should be placed outside to protect the pillow or the patient's clothing. Cold compresses for inflamed eyes should be of one thickness only, and a little larger than the eye. Have a number and change very often. Use a separate compress for each eye. If there is a discharge a compress should not be used a second time. The discarded compresses should be collected in a paper bag or wrapped in newspapers and burned.

When cold compresses are applied to the head there should be a hot water bag at the feet.

_Gargles, sprays, and inhalations_ are often ordered for sore throats and colds.

Salt or soda added to water in the proportion of a teaspoonful to a pint makes an excellent gargle.

A very cold gargle or one as hot as can be held without burning is better than a tepid one.

Do not go out in the cold air directly after using a hot gargle.

Use at least six separate mouthfuls each time you gargle, and hold long enough at the back of the throat for the gargle to reach every part.

A spray should not be used for the nose without a special order from the doctor. The liquid sometimes gets into the pa.s.sage leading to the ear and causes earache.

Always wipe the nozzle of the atomizer before using. It should be cleaned after each use and boiled, if another patient is to use it.

Always boil the nozzle and clean out the bottle when the atomizer is to be put away. Keep it in a box where dust will not reach it.

_Inhalations_ are useful to relieve difficult breathing and for loss of voice or hoa.r.s.eness. Fill a pitcher, bowl, or basin, two-thirds full of boiling water. Wrap with a towel to prevent burning if it should touch a patient. Usually drugs such as peppermint spirits, oil of eucalyptus, or tincture of benzoin, in dose of a teaspoonful to the hot water contained in the receptacle, is enough. If no drug is at hand, the steam itself may be depended upon to do some good. Pin one end of a bath towel around the face below the eyes and spread the other over the pitcher inhaling the steam as it rises. It may not be possible to induce a child to do this, in which case make a tent of an open umbrella with a sheet thrown over it at the head of the bed, leaving the front a little open. Place the pitcher so that the child will get the steam and hold the pitcher carefully all the time. Do not let the pitcher touch the patient.

Another means of inhalation is to hold a funnel, made of a piece of folded paper in the nose of a kettle of very hot water, near the patient so that the steam can be inhaled. Be very careful not to scald the patient. After a steam inhalation one should not go out in the cold air nor have the windows opened for an hour or more.

Common Medicines and Other Remedies

It is a very safe rule _never_ to take medicines oneself without a doctor's orders. Above all, never advise others, even when you know from experience that certain medicines have helped yourself and others.

Medicines should be taken upon prescription from the physician, should be measured accurately, and given at the exact hour ordered.

Read carefully the label or box from which you take the medicine before and after opening or uncorking, and read the name again when putting back in its place. Many people have been poisoned by not reading the label. Have all gla.s.ses and spoons, etc., thoroughly cleansed before and after using.

Accuracy, attention, cleanliness, regularity should be watchwords.

In giving either food or medicine, the following measures are helpful:

1 teaspoonful measures 50 grains.

2 teaspoonfuls make 1 dessertspoonful.

2 dessertspoonfuls make 1 tablespoonful.

2 tablespoonfuls make 1 ounce.

8 ounces make 1 cupful or gla.s.sful.

16 ounces make one pint, or pound.

(This applies to either liquid or dry measure.)

In giving pills, capsules, tablets give a drink of water first to moisten the tongue and throat. This helps them to slip down more easily.

If there is danger of a pill or tablet choking the patient, crush the pill or tablet between two spoons.

When medicines are taken by spoon, the spoon should be licked by the patient in order to get the full amount.

Nearly all medicines should be mixed with water, and should be followed with a drink of water unless orders are given to the contrary.

Keep all medicines tightly corked.

Buy medicines only in small quant.i.ties, as most of them lose their strength in time.

In buying vaseline or cold cream it is better to have it in a tube than in jars. Being opened and dipped into constantly soon makes the contents of a jar unclean.

Common Remedies

Such remedies as the following are to be found in many homes.

Castor oil, clove oil, vaseline, baking soda (this is the same thing as bicarbonate of soda or saleratus), salt, lime water, alcohol, camphorated oil, spirits of camphor, flaxseed, aromatic spirits of ammonia. Do not confuse this latter remedy with ammonia water used for cleansing things.

Castor oil should be taken in these doses:

Baby: 1 to 2 teaspoonfuls.

Older children: 1 tablespoonful.

Adult: 1 to 2 tablespoonfuls.

There are many ways of taking castor oil. Heat the gla.s.s or spoon, put in some orange or lemon juice, then the oil, then more juice. Open the mouth wide and put the oil far back. Have more juice at hand to swallow immediately after. Chilling the mouth by holding a piece of ice in it for a few minutes also helps to disguise the taste. A couple of tablespoonfuls of lemon or orange juice with a quarter of a teaspoonful of soda mixed thoroughly with the oil will make it effervesce so that it is not unpleasant to take.

If the dose is vomited, wait a little while, then give another. Do not give directly before nor directly after a meal.

_Olive oil_ is often taken in doses of one or two teaspoonfuls after meals to regulate the bowels or to help people gain weight or when the appet.i.te is small. It is also used to rub into the skin of under-nourished babies and to rub sick people, especially if the skin is very dry. After rubbing with oil always wipe the skin with a towel.

_Vaseline_ is used to grease sore and chafed parts. A little may be inserted into the nostrils for a cold. Camphorated vaseline is especially good for this. In case of an irritating cough that keeps a child from sleeping, a little plain pure vaseline may be put in the mouth, and it will be found very soothing.

Vaseline is also used to grease such utensils as nozzles and to put on the parts to which poultices or fomentations are to be applied.

_Soda_ may be used for burns (moisten and apply as a paste), as a gargle (one teaspoonful to a pint of water), as an enema (the same proportion), for colds (a teaspoonful in a quart of water to be taken internally in the course of each day), and in bilious attacks, water with this amount of soda may be given. Also to get a person to vomit, in which case the water should be slightly warm.

_Salt_ may be used as a gargle in the same way as soda, and even mixed with soda, also for enemas. Coa.r.s.e salt, when heated and put into bags, may be used when there is no hot water bag.

_Lime water_ is used in mixing the baby's milk and is put in the milk for sick people when they cannot take full strength milk. The usual proportion is two tablespoons of lime water to a half gla.s.s of milk, which makes about 1 part of lime water to 3 parts of milk.