The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-03-04
Home Nursing
On Emergency Poulice

| A WOMAN who lived on a sheen l A ranch in a lonely western state A was the mother of small children and carried on the dnties and responsi- bilities of a home in the wilderness. Sometimes she had experiences which were not exactly pleasant.
 One time her little boy caught his leg on the wire fence and she had to cut the wire with heavy shears before she could free him from the cruel prongs of barbed wire than were tearing his tender flesh. Not until she could free him from the wire could she stop the in cutting the wire, applied first aid, and undoubtedly saved her child's life. That was only one grim experience The woman always added in relatin the experience. Wasn't I thankful tha I knew exactly where the wire cutie was; it's a wonderful thing to Thav place for everything and keep every. thing in it's place!'
 Then there was the time her children had croup in the night, and the time the baby fell into an empty well. There were many nerve-racking experiences of the kind that only women and moth- CTS can understand.
 Once her husband was i'll and some- thing told the woman that he was very ill. So i'll that she was afraid to try her own little homely remedies tha' served so we'll for the children wheI they had slight temperature, or fel sick without being able to tell exactl where the pain was. The woman ws wise enough to refrain from givir her husband medicine until she kne what was wrong with him. She di however, decide that heat applied the side, where the pain seemed to might at least allay her husbands s' fering until the doctor could get the which would be at least 12 hours.
 She did not apply a mustard pl ter. She remembered the comforting poultices her own mother had alw put on her when, as a child, she suffered from vague aches and pa
 "A poultice at least will do no b and it may do some good, because applied to the skin soothes and lieves pain. almost always" unused woman philosophica1ly.
 Then she discovered that she no linseed meal!
 It was the middle of the nigh she was miles from store!
 Her husband tossed and moan said, T thought you said you Ing to get pVulIlco TUT me.
 "Yes, dear I'm getting it." co the woman, thinking quickly ting up an old curtain to T poultice. g
 Did she sit down and wee' her husband that she was d. sorry, but there wasn't | seed meal in the house and afraid he would have to go poultice and just keep on sui
 Not bit of itl
 She put a pan of water on the Into the boiling water she stirred meal into it until a~as the E. consistency for tice, and folded the hot steaming IT, into the muslin. Every half hour, lalf might long, shs made oatmeal pon1tices and kept them on her husbands side, with the rssuls that he fell asleep at last and had some rest.
 Poultices may Do made oE any eozs nonirritafing substance that can bs mixed into paste with water and win retain heat. The reason Chat liusssd, or flaxseed meal, (they axa the ssme) are generally used for pouificeas sis that this meal contains oil and can be used at high temperature without blister. ing the skin. In using oatmeal, one should be very careful about the tem. perature of the poultice and watch the skin for signs of undue redness.