Democratic Sentinel, Volume 5, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 July 1881 — Sunstroke. [ARTICLE]

Sunstroke.

1. Carry the patient carefully, but promptly, to the nearest shade. 2. Secure for him as much circulation of wholesome air as may be possibly obtained. 3. If the skin is hot, sponge with cold water or ice. 4. If the head is very hot, and the arteries of the neck pulsate violently, apply ice. 5. Give two teaspoonfuls of good brandy or whisky every ten or fifteen minutes. The addition of two or three drops of laudanum to each dose of the stimulant prevents vomiting or purging, which is liable to occur ana often prove fatal. 6. Don’t give large draughts of cold water or any other fluid, even if the patient is able to swallow them. 7. Don’t allow the patient to be moved or raised from a recumbent position until sufficiently recovered to render it safe to do so. This seldom occurs for hours, and often not for days, after the attack. 8. Send at once for a doctor, not for half a dozen. Othetwise valuable time may be lost by differences in opinion as to whether the case is one of congestion or exhaustion. It is always safer for non-professional prescribers, and generally safer for doctors, to pursue methods of treatment calculated to relieve more or less profound exhaustion of vital powers.