MEDICAL HINTS FOR COUNTRY SETTLERS.

Waikato Times, Volume I, Issue 66, 1 October 1872, Page 3

MEDICAL HINTS FOR COUNTRY SETTLERS.

U V T. K. KAVV.SON, .VI.D. \JJoitcludr.d.J Nhvhr plant the ornamental monks'-hood ("Aeonitum Napellu" or " Wolf's-bane," as it is sometimes called, and " blue-rocket" in Ireland) with its pretty blue flowers in spikes, in your garden. The smallest port,ion of the. leaf is deadly poison, and many people have been poisoned by its roots being mistaken in winter for hory.e.-radisk. I remember two gentlemen being poisoned by this mistake in eating it with their beef on Christinas day.

In fracture, of n Hud), there is no occasion to be n a violent, hurry to have it "set" at once, especially if it occurs at night. Lay the person on his back, on a mattress, place the limb as straight as may be on a large pillow, and tie the sides up to the limb by taocs passed under it; then place a large book on eae'i side the pillow to prevent the limb rolling to either side. Apply cloths wet in warm water to the fractured part. No lime is lost, by waiting till morning. A broken bone does not begin to "hcl," for .s\enernl days. In curly life I was assistant, with an eminent, surgeon, who never set his fracture for several days; and few medical men would prefer to hind a fracture up fi.iudl.if, before the inflammation and swelling has Hoinewhut subsided, if they were not pressed by the impatience of the friends to have the bone "set" at mire, There in one form of dislocation, or "jjutting out" of a joint,, of not. uiifrequent occurrence in children, and attended with such severe and unbearable pain for a child, that, it is most, desirable it should he reduced, or "put, in" as quickly as possible. It ought, not to be diflirult for any one to do it, with ordinary courage, if informed how to do it. A man of course could at once ride into town to a surgeon. It is dislocation, of the arm from the shoulder socket, and is generally caused by a fall from a fence, a wall, or a tree, on the point, of the shoulders. The boy coines home, carrying the forearm in his other hand, pale and faint, and with an expression of great sullering. The elbow stands out, fixed, from the side. There is a hard lump in the armpit, which is the head of the bone, out of its place; and t,lie severe pain is owing 1.0 the pressure of the head of the bnne on a bundle of nerves in its new position. Lay the boy on his bark on the ground; then lie down yourself on the ground, in the opposite direction, so that you can place the heel of your foot (but mind you take your boot oil' first) in the dislocated armpit, your right foot, in his left, arinnit, or your left in h's right. Then take hold firmly of the arm at the elbow, and br'ng it. over your leg, towards his body, at, the same time pressing with your heel against the head of the bone, and the bone will be sure to slip into its place again. If u child of tender age, reduction may be accomplished by thrusting the clo e l fist into the nnnnit against the bone; then take hold of the arm as before, and bring it across yours; thus, in both cases, making a lever of the arm; the fist, or heel being the I'uYrum or rest, and the head of the bone the resistance ; just as you lift a stone into its place bv a crowbar or rail, bv re-ting it on anot.l or stone or fixed point. Then Lvm the loivirui in a sling for a week. It must not be done roughly, nor in a hurry, hut with firmne s aud steadiness. We medical men must quote Latin, and as we profess to be guided by the following maxim, I will truuslafe it for the benefit of the unlearned : — "Suaviter in re, fort it or in niodo." "(lenlle in manner, but firm in purpose." Let me recommend fathers, when any member of their family is ill. never fo come homo late at nhjht. You may wake your sick child out of its first and best sleep, and it may perhaps be its last sleep. And especially never come home at night, intoxicated, nor at ant/ other time. I was once at tending the daughter of a gentleman (a beautiful girl of sixteen), with an eminent physician, Dr. Ifeygate, of Derby. Neither of us considered her in any danger. She was, howover, very nervous, excitable, and hysterical. I was hastily summoned to the house at midnight. I found her suO'cring fearful spasms of the heart, and she expired soon after I entered the room. Her mother and sister had been sitting with her during the evening, talking and reading fo her. She fell into a s mud sleep, and (he mother and sister put out the candles, and lay down beside her. The father, a strong man, who was much addicted to drinking, came home late, intoxicated. Impatient at not, being let in at once, he kicked the door down. The outer door was just under the sick girl's chamber. She awoke in a great fright, supposing the house was being broken into by tlroves, and uttered a loud and piercing scream. The housekeeper, a middle-aged woman, had been sitting np by the kitchen fire, waiting for the lather coming home. She, too, tired with her day's work, had fallen asleep, and did not hear his knock for admittance. Startled by the noise, ami the girl's shriek, she rushed to the stairs in the dark, but opened the cellar door instead of the staircase door, and fell headlong down the stone steps, fractured her skull, and never spoke again. Both died the same night. We fathers would not have that man's reflections for a good deal. " Sleep no more! Macbeth hath murder'd sleep! the innocent sleep ! Cellar doors ought never to open in proximity with other doors. Two fatal mistakes, like the one I have mentioned, have occur:ed in my practice; both associated with drunkenness, as cellar doors often are.

TT.vp Fohgottex Something.—"lsay,eap'nsaid a little-eyed man as he landed from the steamboat at Natchez—" I say, this 'ere ain't all." That's all the baggage you brought on board, sir," replied the captain." " Well, see now, it's according to list — four boxes, three chests, two ban' boxes, portmanty, two hams (one part cut), three ropes invons. and a tea-kettle ; but I'm dubersum. I feel there's somethins short, though I've counted 'em nine times, and never took my eyes off ov'em while on board ; there's something not right somehow." "Well, stranger, the time's up. There's all I know of; so bring up your ®wife and five children out of the cabin, and we're off." " Them's um ! darn it—them's um!" he exclaimed. " I know'd I'd forgotten something." A lawyer, upon a circuit in Ireland, who was pleadin the cause of an infant plaintiff, took the child up in his arms and presented it to the jury suffused with tear-". This had a great effect until the opposite lawver asked the child, " What makes you cry ?"— "He pinched me," answered the little innocent. The "whole court "was eonyulsed with laughter.

Too Much Kxo\vm:j>ok in tuk Who no Place. — Very few of the English visitors to Paria in 180:4 could speak French, and Mr Jackson frequently overheard from the Parisians, rarely able to speak any language but their own:—" Ces Anglais sont excessivemcnt bfites ; ils ne savent pas uu mot de Francaia." He tells a good story of the bold attempt of a Polish Princess to talk English : —" I must tell you what occurred at a ball at the Russian Minister's to Miss Jennings, Mrs Rose's aunt. S.ie was introduced to a Polish lady of rank—l need not tell you her name — who knew a few words of English and was anxious to try a conversation. They did not get on very well, but M iss J., willing to say something she thought tie lady would understand, inquired partly by words, partly by gesture, the name of another lady who was present. Madame la Princess answered, ' Damn eyes, I not know!' Miss Jennings said she opened her eyes pretty wide with astonishment, and looked round, hoping no one was near enough to hear it. Lu grand dame taking this for doubt, repeated the words several times with still greater emphasis. ' I knew not which way to look,' said Miss Jennings, ' some one must have told her it was a familiar JOnglish way of asscrtinga thing, and I could not attempt to explain her error to her, poor lady.' " —" Diaries of a Diplomatist," from the Quarterly Ittuiew. A musician at Hudderstield has been sentenced to eighteen montlus' imprisonment for various little d miestie offences, including the performance of the " Dead March in Saul" over his wife during a severe il 11 BS. Tne misgovernment of New York appears to be as great in sanitary as in other matters. The N>iu; York T'iiiu'.h, in an article on this subject, calls attenlim to the fact that, while in Loudon in the first quarter of the present year the death-rate was twenty-four per t hous'tnd of the population, and while at the same time it was only twenty-three per thousand in Paris, it was as high as thirty-two per thousand in NewYork. That is to say, the chances of life appear to he almost one-third less in New York than in either London or Paris. Berlin was the only important European city in which the rate of mortality was as high as in New York ; but Berlin was suffering from an exceedingly fatal visitation of small-pox. The death-rate of New York, in fact, during the first three months of the year was actually greater than that of oil,her Bombay or Calcutta, and was but slightly less than fli.it of Madras. In London, again, with a population of 3,251,800, the number of deaths by violence during the first rptarter of the year are set down us (538. In New York, with a population of only 925,300, the weekly average deaths by violence during the same period is returned as 33, which for the whole three months would give about -129. In other words, taking the quarter as the standard for the year, eight persons in every 10,000 in London came to their deaths from violent causes in a year ; in New York as many as 18 in every 10,000 are killed by violence of some kind or other in the course of twelve months.—Pall Mull Gazette. The Leamington crier was heard the other dav making the following announcement in the streets of that fashionable inland vvatcrplace : —-Oh, yes ; oh, yes ; oh, yes ; this is to give notice to all mistresses of laundresses that, at an open-air meeting, held at Leamington by ladies of the wash-tub, it was ro solved that, on and after the Ist day of June, no washerwoman would work for less than Is fid per dav, her board and beer included. By order of the Indies of the wash-tub. Grod save the Q-ucen! Some of the fair Hex have hearts as brittle as glass, lie that would make an impression must use diamonds.