_Poisoning._--Poisonous drugs are not kept upon the wards. Attendants frequently have strong ammonia in their rooms to clean their clothing, and a patient may get it and drink it. It is a strong alkali, and burns the throat and mouth. Vinegar is the best ready antidote, but should be given immediately or not at all. Soft soap is a strong alkali, and if eaten becomes an irritating poison. Again vinegar is the best antidote. The best antidotes for acids are soda, lime-water, soap-suds, and chalk; for alkalies, weak acids, such as lemons, oranges, vinegar, or cider. Olive oil, eggs, and mucilaginous drinks are the most bland and soothing remedies to give. To vomit a person who has taken poison, give a pint or a quart of lukewarm water; to it may be added one or two teaspoonfuls of mustard. Syrup of ipecac is a common remedy, the dose is a teaspoonful, and repeated in ten minutes if necessary. It assists vomiting to tickle the throat with a finger or a feather. If after poisoning there is depression or approaching coma, very strong tea or coffee is the best stimulant, and it is as well an antidote to many poisons. If the heart and pulse are very weak, whiskey diluted with water may be given and repeated. _Injury from Eating Glass._--Patients sometimes eat glass. This injures by the edges cutting and inflaming the walls of the stomach and intestines. This may be so severe as to cause death. In the treatment do not give an emetic or a cathartic. Such food as has a tendency to constipate the bowels, and such as will also enclose the glass and coat its sharp edges, is to be given. Potatoes, especially sweet, oatmeal, or thick indian-meal pudding, are appropriate. Cotton, which is generally at hand, will, if swallowed, engage the glass in its fibres, and so protect from injury. _Injury with Needles._--This is a self-injury, but it may be severe and require immediate attention. Patients may open a vein or an artery with a needle, or plunge it into the eye. But the more common way is for a patient to stick many needles under the skin, sometimes to the number of several hundred. Sometimes patients introduce them near the heart or lungs, and as a needle will often "travel" when in the flesh, it may work its way into a deeper part, and so a number get into the lungs or the heart, causing death. Within a few weeks I saw two needles taken from a man's heart, who died in consequence of their presence there. An attempt or desire to so injure one's self should be guarded against by the attendants, and if accomplished should be at once reported to the physician, that efforts may be made to extract the needle. CHAPTER X. SOME SERVICES FREQUENTLY DEMANDED OF ATTENDANTS, AND HOW TO DO THEM.