Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1907-01-04
Antidotes for Poison.

One day, as the boys and their tutor
were clambering over stones, poking
about in the hope of finding some relic,
Mr.. Wilson exclaimed: Look out for
that poison ivy, boys!"
''But thought the poison kind had
only three leaves, and this has flve,"
cried John. who had gone some dis
lance from the others.
There are two kinds of ivy here"
replied Mr.. Wilson; "the one which
you are looking at. John, is the Vir-
ginia creeper; in the fall this ivy has
dark blue berries. We are looking at
some poison ivy over here; its ber-
ries are white and it has three leaves"
We'll, guess l know the differ
ence," said Abe. do you see my
hand?"
YES" said Mr.. Wilson; 'T've been
wondering what was the matter with
it."
well, I was poking around yester-
day in the woods, and 1 was careless,
l s'pose, because this morning when /
woke up found I'd poisoned myself"
How did it feel?" asked John.
1T burned and itched, and it was
all broken out in red blotches and
blisters."
But what did you do for it?" asked
John.
MY mother wet some pieces Of
cloth in water and baking soda, and
the itching stopped after little
while"
How much baking soda did she
use?" said John, who always became
interested in anything of this kind.
A tablespoonful in a teacup of wa
ter"
Here's your old friend baking soda
again" said Mr. Wilson; you see, we
use it for burns, for sunburn and for
eruptions caused by poisons on the
skin. Were any of you ever poisoned
inside?"
81 was" said Abe, who had proved
such jolly companion that the boys
had again invited him to join them;
sit was over here on the island that
l ate some poke-berries last summer
because they looked good and juicy"
What did you do for that?" said the
inquisitive John.
Mother gave me lot of warm wa
ter, pint at time, and once or twice
some with little mustard in IT.
What did that do to your" said
Jerry. Gee, I'm glad l didn't eat any
poke-berriesi
Il got sick at my stomach and it all
came up" said Abe. and then l felt
better, only was so cold that mother
put me to bed in warm blankets and
gave me hot coffee to drink"
Your mother couldn't have done
any better if she had been a DOCTOR
said Mr.. Wilson, for she attended to
the main things. She got rid of the
poison first and then braced you up
afterward There are many poisons,
however, that have to be treated in
special ways. They need an anti
dote"
That's a funny word,' said John.
What does that mean, Guardie?"
'FWell, it means something like this:
When the cooks baby drank I've she
had to have an antidote-in other
words, she had swallowed an alkali,
and she had to take an acid, which is
an antidote for an alkali. You remem-
Der they gave her lemon juice; that's
an acid.
"Why couldn't they have given her
vinegar?" said John. isn't that an
acid?"
yes replied Mr.. Wilson, "it would
have been very good, too"
81 should think that sometimes peo-
pie would take acids and get poison
ed" said John.
'You are quite right" said Mr.. Viii
son: "they do. and then you have to
give them an alkali, which would be,
for instance, aromatic spirits of am
monia, or our friend baking soda; but
another thing, the acid would injure
the walls of the stomach, and you
would give milk, or the whites of eggs,
or -four stirred in water besides.
"Well, | fear it's going to be rather
hard work to study medicine, if this is
a part of 1t, Guardie," said John. but
| think / like it"-Dr. E. P. Walker
in St. Nicholas.
The Chinese In the mines of South
A frioo nvarf themselves as little al