Page:Scouting for girls, adapted from Girl guiding.djvu/194

180 Choking sometimes comes from a sudden swelling inside the throat. In this case put hot steaming flannel fomentations to the neck and give the patient ice to suck or cold water to sip.

Quinsy.—When I was in the Andes Mountains in South America recently, I heard of two Englishmen who had died there not long before from choking by quinsy, simply because there was no one by who knew what to do in such a case. Everybody ought to Be Prepared to deal with quinsy if away from the help of doctors.

Most people suffer from tonsilitis at one time or another in their lives—that is a swelling of the tonsils—the round lumps of flesh on each side of the back of the throat. And sometimes, on rare occasions, the swelling becomes so great that the patient cannot breathe, the throat becomes completely blocked up. This is quinsy.

Very hot fomentations is the best step towards easing the pain and reducing the swelling.

The extreme measure is to lance the patient's tonsils.

Acid Burning.—A case occurred only the other day of a woman throwing vitrol over a man's face. This is an awful acid, which burns and eats away the flesh wherever it touches. Fortunately a policeman happened to be on the spot at the time, and knew what to do. He at once applied half warm water to which some soda had been added to wash off the acid, and then applied flour or whitening to protect the wound from the air and ease the pain as you would do for a burn.

Snake Bite.—Fortunately poisonous snakes are uncommon. If you go abroad you may come across them,