Sometimes people make the mistake of drinking something that is poisonous. Of course, one good way to prevent this is to have _every bottle in the house carefully marked_ and never to take anything from a bottle without reading the mark, or label. Another good way is _not to have poisons about_ any more than we actually need to. Still, even so, sometimes a mistake is made. If you ever make such a mistake, the best thing to do is to drink as much warm water as you can, and into the second cupful to put a tablespoonful of dry mustard or two heaping tablespoonfuls of salt. This will make you vomit, and up will come the poison. The water makes the poison weaker. If this doesn't make you throw up the poison, have some one tickle the back of your throat with a feather. There are a great many kinds of poison and as many things to take to cure them; but this is the only remedy I shall tell you about, because, by the time you have tried this, some older person will probably have come to help you. All the medicines that you see advertised as "Headache Cures" are dangerous poisons if taken in too large doses; and most of them in small doses weaken the heart. They are what we call narcotics; they just deaden the nerves to pain without doing anything whatever to relieve or remove the cause. If you have a headache, the best thing to do is to go and lie down quietly and rest or sleep, until it goes away. A headache always means that something is wrong; it is one of Nature's most valuable danger signals. When your head aches, Nature is telling you that you have been over-straining your eyes, or breathing foul air, or eating some food that does not agree with you, or forgetting to go to the toilet regularly, or not getting sleep enough. The sensible thing to do is not to swallow some medicine to deaden your nerves to the pain, but to find out what you have been doing that is unhealthful for you, and then stop it. Most of the medicines called "patent medicines," which are advertised to "cure" all sorts of pains and troubles, contain poisons, and are particularly dangerous because they easily lead one to form the habit of taking them. Nine tenths of them are either absolute frauds,--of no strength or use whatever,--or else they contain alcohol, or opium, or some of the dangerous drugs made out of coal tar. Now about _burns_. You need not wash them, because the heat has killed the troublesome germs. They need to be covered from the air, if the blister is broken. Cover them thickly with olive oil or vaseline, or common baking soda mixed with a few drops of water. This makes a good paste to put over them, and it will ease the pain. (This is the way to treat a _wasp_ or _bee sting_, too, after you have pulled out the "stinger.") If the blister of the burn is not broken, just keep putting vaseline or sweet oil on it every half hour or so, and the blister won't break; for the oil will make it limber and prevent it from bursting.