Treatment of Stings

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · May 8, 1879

Treatment of Stings.

The pain caused by the sting of a plant or insect is the result of a certain amount of acid poison injected into the blood. The first thing to be done is to press the tube of a small key from side to side to facilitate the expulsion of the sting and its accompanying poison. The sting, if left in the wound, should be carefully extracted, otherwise it will greatly increase the local irritation. The poison of stings being acid, common sense points to the alkalies as the proper means of cure. Among the most easily produced remedies may be mentioned soft soap, liquor of ammonia (spirits of hartshorn), smelling salts, washing soda, quicklime made into a paste with water, the juice of an onion, tobacco juice, chewed tobacco, bruised dock leaves, tomato juice, wood ashes, tobacco ashes and carbonate of soda. If the sting be severe, rest and coolness should be added to the other remedies, more especially in the case of nervous subjects. Nothing is so apt to make the poison so active as heat, and nothing favors its activity less than cold. Let the body be kept cool and at rest, and the activity of the poison will be reduced to a minimum. Any active exertion whereby the circulation is quickened, will increase both pain and swelling. If the swelling be severe, the part may be rubbed with sweet oil or a drop or two of laudanum. Stings in the eye, ear, mouth, or throat, sometimes lead to serious consequences. In such cases medical advice should always be sought for as soon as possible.—Horticulturist.