The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1917-10-11
HOME HEALTH CLUB
edited by DR.. David H. Reeder,

LockjaW: -. The distressing and Of
ten fatal condition called tetanus bv
may be easily avoided if
proper precautions are taken and
even after it has developed, be cured
by prompt and vigorous treatment of
the rapid kind. -
To illustrate the simplest and most
effective way of prevention L will de-
scribe wound upon myself and how
treated it., I had gone to the lake
with my little chaps and we all went
In for a frolic in the cool, pleasant
water. After a delightful romp and
splash1ng around ! started out of the
water with the baby in my arms and
just before reached shore stepped,
upons.a rusty nail tt penetrated
the bottom Of my foot far enough so
that 1t required quite pull to get,
II out. I dressed as quickly as
possible and hurried to a. summer cot
tage near by, where friend supplied
me with bottle of peroxide of hy-
drogen. I had a sharp pocket knife
and cut away the skin and flesh so
as to lay the wound open to the farth- :
est point of penetration, and then +
poured in the peroxide of hydrogen.
saturated a bit of cotton with it, bound
it over the wound and came to the
city. I did not want the wound to
heal over quickly because the. princi-
pal danger in such cases is from all
lowing the wound to heal outwardly
before 1t has healed inv ardly. There
fore, in order to make sure of the
matter. I took a toothpick, wrapped
the end-with a thin cover of steril-
lied cotton and dipped 1t in carbolio
acid, L then inserted this into the
wound, which of course SO burned the
outer part that it would not heal as
rapidly as the inner part. I then fas-
tened on hit of sterilized cotton with
! strip of surgeons plaster and the
wound was safe. Each night and
morning dropped into it few drops
OF peroxide of hydrogen and changed
the dressing once daily. There was
soreness of course, hut no sign of
pus or Inflammation at any time and
In less than a week it was we'll
In another case man simply bun1r,-
ed his head against a rusty nail in a
loft. It bled a little, but he did, not
pay any attention to it. The blood
formed covering over the wound,
and in three days he felt stiffness in
his neck; still no attention was paid
to the little wound on the head and
soon the stifening proceeded until a
fully developed case Of lockjaw had
been established before a physician
was called. The pain spread rapidly
and only drug treatment was used.
Death followed in a few days and the
suffering was very. great before the
release came.
In some respects tetanus is like
blood poisoning. In ordinary blood
poison the wound is generally the first
cause. Being improperly cared for
diseased and poisonous matter is al
lowed get into the blood and cause
Inflammation. This continues to
spread until all Of the. blood is cdr
rupt and death follows. In tetanus
the slight hncared for wound is the
starting point
Now, there are many of you who
will remember having been wounded
by rusty nails many times, wfrile
working on the farm or about the
house and you did not stop even to
bind, up the hurt. No harm followed
and you might go through the same
experience dozen times and never
have lockjaw, but let me tell you
OF the probable reason why you did
not have trouble. The same care
lessness which allowed the hurt to
go uncared for was the cause Of the
scab being torn off the next day. This
repeatedly occurred until the wound
healed from the bottom yhereas II
you had been exceedingly careful not
to break the scab you NIGH have hae
| Iockjaw
In the home treatment of lockiay
two things must be kept in view
First, that further progress of thesdfs
ease must be stopped at once and sec
ond, the poison must be very rapid,
| eliminated from the system. Tn
wound must be opened and thorough
| ~ steril1zed. Peroxide of hydrogen
will be the simplest and safest. treat
! ment but IL you have it use tinctur
of iodine, full strength. Use it freel
ana frequently two or, three time
| daily. Stop, all food and give grea
| Quantities of pure water. Cleans
| the entire a1imentary canal very,t tn or
oughly. The withholding of.food an,
| the drinking of water freely will 500,
cleanse : the stomach. but the lowe
bowel and colon must be flushed by :;
very thorough enema of warm water
If a couple of teaspoonsful Of lobeli,
extract is placed in the water it will
have tendency to relax the contract
ed tissues and give great relief.
Then must begin course of treat
ment that will cause the perspiratio,
| to flow very freely indeed. In tn,
absence of better herbs. take a larg,
kettlefu1 of the broken stems, leave
and seed of hay from the barn lot
timothy, clover or nillet hay, a,
the case may be: fill the. kettle will
/ water and boil as il to make tea Sat
| urate several thicknesses of an, .olt
blanket with this and wrap the stiff
ened parts in it as khot as can b,
borne. If you have lobelia, use THU
/! freely. also making hot connection
of the 1obelia and saturating severa
thicknesses Of flannel, and bind owe
the abdomen.
Internally give milk boiled will
tcommon fennel, which grows SO plen
stifu1ly in all parts of the country
About an equal quantity of waite
should be added to the milk; a tea
| spoonful of this every hour; also {
teaspoonful of anise tea every three
quarters of an hour. Wrap the who'll,
| body in fanne1s and blankets so, as tt
| get as profuse a Precipitation as pos
sible and when the poison begins te
leave the system, after the herbs have
no 70 IN ~ =.