Newark evening star and Newark advertiser., 1915-11-17
HEALTH AND HAPPINESS
BY DIR. LEONARD KEENE HIRsHBERG.
A. b., NJ. a., NJ. D. (John Hopkins.l

Why Cuts and Scratches Should Receive
Attention.
Man is a poor pensioner on the
bounties of an hour, yet eternity is his
| il he makes the best of his pension,
life. Though that hour be too busily
crowded for thinking of self, it is
never without moments for helpful
thoughts of others. The clock does
not strike Tor the happy but the min
utes linger ages for those who are i'll,
hafassed, tired, miserable or worried
about those they love.
The mother, whose little one has
crushed its hand in the crevice of
door or scraped its scalp upon q step,
often does either of two mistaken
things. She may be overanXious and
worried beyond measure and thus
bring a trail of uncalled-for calami-
ties upon herself, or she may ignore a
little germ-laden scratch with pro-
digious hope, and thus omit to apply
the very precautions which might en-
courage such complaisant views,
namely, measures to prevent lockjaw.
The child may come too close TO
some sharp object, such as a splinter
of wood, nail or rough dish. A
scratch, cut, or an abrasion, deep
or shallow, extensive or bleeding free
ly may follow. Be the incision ever
SO trivial, il should be given surgical
attention at once.
Home First Aids.
What kind of surgical attention can
an uninformed mother provide?
The most important of all.
1t is the act of applying peroxide of
hydrogen as a germ cleaner, and
boracic acid and water as germicide.
It is the avoidance of such danger
GUS practice as washing the wound,
be it ever SO gently, with merely
plain water, Ieold or hot. To do this
is really adding. fuel to the flames by
inoculating the sore with the microbes
ever present in unsterilized wafer.
Whether the catastrophe falls to the
lot of infants or adults, a piece of
sterile guaze or linen should be
moistened with carbolic acid water
and applied to the disinfected tear or
cut. The whole ceremony of disin-
fecting the open place or scratch must
be repeated and a fresh dressing ap-
piled daily.
A harmless. clean cut or scratch
heals without aches or pains. If,
after the first day pain, sensitiveness
or redness assert itself in its neigh
borhood, it means that bacteria and
dirt have infected the wound. Ii
moisture, matter or an odor accom-
panies this, it is proof positive that
serious bacterial invasion of the
wound has taken place.
If the child meets with mishap in
which a vein or artery is lacerated
and serious bleeding occurs, 1t
behooves the mother to tie ribbon
or piece of linen up above the point
of hemorrhage. If it is a finger tip,
tie it near the palm. If in the palm
light loop about the wrist will check
the loss.
At all events these simple pro-
cedures will ward off lockjaw, blood
poisoning, destroyed muscles and
worse things.
Thoughtless persons are much given
to the mistaken notion that their
children's "blood is in bad condition.,
if an ear. a scratch or a cut begins
to inhame and grow sore. or that if
il does not 'the blood is pure"
Punetures and Lockjaw.
Nothing could be more erroneous
or more dangerous to health and life
than the all too popular delusion that
when a cut heals up easily the blood
is in excellent shape" and when 1t
becomes moist, red ana irritated, tine
blood is out of order"
] AS a matter of fact, the blood has
fonly as much to do with the chance
one way or the other as the skin and
flesh, and decidedly less to do with it
than the always dusty, germ laden
air, water and dirt. 1t is a simple
thing to keep cut or a scratch clean