Page:Handbook for Boys.djvu/300

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First Aid and Life Saving
279

bearers then stoop and place the chair under the sitting patient who steadies himself by placing his arms around their necks.

It will sometimes be necessary for one scout to carry an injured comrade. The scout should first turn the patient on his face; he then steps astride his body, faring toward the patient's head, and, with hands under his arm-pits, lifts him to his knees; then, clasping hands over the abdomen, lifts him to his feet; he then, with his left hand, seizes the patient by the left wrist and draws his left arm around his (the bearer's) neck and holds it against his left chest, the patient's left side resting against his body, and supports him with his right arm about the waist. The scout, with his left hand, seizes the right wrist of the patient and draws the arm over his head and down upon his shoulder, then, shifting himself in front, stoops and clasps the right thigh with his right arm passed between the legs, his right hand seizing the patient's right wrist; lastly, the scout, with his left hand, grasps the patient's left hand, and steadies it against his side when he arises.

WATER ACCIDENTS

Wilbert E. Longfellow, United States Volunter Life Saving Corps

The scout's motto, "Be Prepared," is more than usually applicable to the work of caring for accidents which happen in the water.

To save lives, the scout must know first how to swim, to care for himself, and then to learn to carry another and to break the clutch, the "death grip," which we read so much about in the newspaper accounts of drowning accidents. By constant training, a boy, even though not a good swimmer, can be perfectiy at home in the water, fully dressed, undressed, or carrying a boy of his own size or larger. In fact two boys of or fourteen years can save a man.

Swimming

For physical development the breast stroke is useful, for it is one that is used in caring a tired swimmer and is used to go to the bottom for lost articles and to search for a person who has sunk before hdp has reached him. It is possible, you know, to go to the bottom and bring a body to the surface and swim with it to shore before life is extinct and to restore consciousness by well-directed efforts. The body of an unconscious person weighs little when wholly or partially submerged