Morning journal and courier., 1886-04-12
WORTH HEADING BY WOMEN.
How to Act if the Clothes Take Fire Directions to be Remembered.
 T4v nr Inn hall

How to Act If the Clothes Take Ere
 Directions to be Remembered.
 By Dr. John Marshall, F. K. s
 A girl or woman who meets with this accident (of setting fire to her clothes) should immediately lie down on the floor, and so, anyone who goes to her assistance should instantly, if she still be erect, make her lie down, or if needful throw her down into horizontal position and keep her in it. Sparks fly upward and flames ascend. Ignition from below mounts with fearful rapidity and result well known to experts, the fatality of disagreement in these lamentable cases is due to the burns inflicted about the body, neck, face and head, and not to injuries of the lower limbs. Now the very moment that the person whose clothes are on fire is in a horizontal position on a flat surface the flames will still ascend, but only the air and not the flames encircle their victim. Time is thus gained for further action, and in such crisis in fight against fire few seconds are precious, nay priceless. Once ill the prone position, the person afflicted may crawl to a bell pull or to a door so as to clutch at open the other to obtain help. The draught from an open door into the room would serve to blow the flames if any away from the body; or, again, still crawling, the sufferer may be able to secure a rug or table cover, or other article at hand,
 
 maining flames, for soon as the horizontal position is assumed they have no longer much to feed upon, and may either go out, the phrase Is, or may be accidentally or Intentionally extinguished as the person rolls or moves upon the floor. In any case not only is time gained, but the injury in ficted is minimized. In the event of the conditions not being those of self-help, but assistance from another, if it be man who comes to the rescue, having first and instant ly thrown the girl or woman down, it is easy to take off his coat and so stihe the dimin- ished flames with this or some other suitable covering, the flames playing now upward from the lower limbs or the lower part of the body of the prostrate fellow creature. If 1t be woman who rushes to give aid, this last named condition suggests that the safer mode of rendering it is to approach the suf- farer by the head and fling something over the lower part of the body, for fear of set ting fire te herself.
 If, in these fearful accidents, the horizon tai position be assumed or enforced, there could be, in short, comparative immunity and limited injury. If not, what must hap pens The fire will mount; the flames (and it is these which will do the injury) will envel- op the body inside and outside the clothes, and will reach the neck and head, and then, indeed, they may be smothered by coat or wrapper, or rug, while the victim is fright fully disfgured or doomed to perish.
 For many years I have urged these views while featuring on injuries from burns, and once had an occasion to illustrate them practically, though in comparatively triyi- al accident. Some dressings of very in- fammable character caught fire at the bed side of patient in one of my surgical wards; they were promptly seized by student, who threw them into the middle of the ward and endeavored to stamp out the flaming materi- al. But this containing paraffine and resin adhered to his boots, and his legs, as he danced about, were getting uncomfortably hot. To his astonishment and to the un- doubted surprise of everyone in sight, I caught him by the collar of his coat and tripped up his legs. Instantly the flames be- came harmless and were extinguished by nurse throwing jug of water on them.