Friday 2 October 2009

Where is the bell pull?



After some of you were amused by the extract from my St John's First Aid to the injured I thought I would share a couple more extracts with you.

I've managed to find that the book was published in 1913 just before the First World War ...

In case of poisoning -

Send for a doctor at once, stating what has happened and the name of the poison.
Except where the lips are burned by an acid or alkali promptly give an emetic as follows
a) Tickle the back of the throat with the finger or with a feather
b) mustard - a dessertspoonful in a tumblerful of luke warm water

In all cases when the patient is not insensible give milk, raw eggs, cream and flour beaten up together, animal and vegetable oil and tea.

When the person threatens to go to sleep keep him awake by walking him about and slapping his face neck and chest with a wet towel. Slapping the soles of the feet may also be tried.


When a woman's dress catches fire

a) lay her flat on the floor at once flames uppermost
b) smother the flames with anything to hand, rug, coat, blanket or table cover, if made wet so much the better.
c) if a woman's dress catches fire when nobody is by she should lie flat, flames uppermost, smother the flames with anything handy, and call for assistance, or crawl to the bell pull and ring. On no account should she run into the open air.

I was going to include more but some of the advice is positively scary for those of a delicate nature! I'm so glad I was born in the fifties!

Hope you all have healthy and accident free weekends!

Love Wend

10 comments:

  1. Thanks for sharing such useful advice with us!
    Hope you have a good weekend too.
    Lisa x

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  2. thats so funny!!
    Thanks for sharing hun!
    Have a great weekend x
    Annie x

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  3. Wow! Minus the bell pull, that looks identical advice to the first aid section of my Girl Guide handbook in the 1980s! Where HAD the bell pull gone in the intervening years?

    My grandparents' house had working bell pulls in the '70s, and we were allowed, on special occasions, to have one sister ring one while the other one watched in the kitchen to see the bells in action! We moved to a house in the 1980s whch still had the pulls but no connection to the bells. What would we have done in an emergency?

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  4. More, more, MORE of this little book please. It's wonderful!

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  5. Must remeber to tickle hubbies throat next time he complains about my cooking! Priceless!
    Love Sarah x

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  6. Please share some more with us hun it's such a laugh hahaha love \lucey x

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  7. Brilliant! You'll have to share some more with us!

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  8. I think I'd better invest in a bell pull and buy a jar of mustard

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  9. love your title on this post.very funny......bell pulls should come as standard in all first aid kits

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  10. What a giggle - more please !

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