Much needless suffering is now caused the ill and injured on account
of the ignorance of unskilled persons. It has been said that the fate
of the injured is dependent on the care which their injuries first
receive. It is therefore necessary for everybody to learn what to do
first in an emergency, and what not to do. This is easy to learn, but the
subject must be learned. Nobody can be expected to know this without
instruction. The number of people injured in the United States is rapidly
mounting and is now in the hundreds of thousands annually. Knowledge
of first aid to the injured cannot, it is true, prevent the consequent
suffering entirely, but it can be made an important factor in this result.
The health of the family depends largely upon the home maker, and it
is most essential that she have a definite knowledge of personal and
household hygiene and the proper preparation of food. Special diet for
the sick is no less essential. Scarcely any woman is unacquainted with
the sick room in her own family, and some simple instruction in the care
of the sick should be a part of every woman’s education.
It is the purpose of the Red Cross to provide for this instruction.