Common cooking soda, as found in every kitchen, is a convenient remedy
for burns and scalds. Moisten the injured part and then sprinkle with
dry soda so as to cover it entirely and loosely wrap it with a wet linen
cloth.
Another convenient remedy for the same kind of injury, if you have a
mucilage bottle at hand, is to brush or pour a coating of the mucilage
over the entire injured part. The chief cause for pain from burns and
scalds is their exposure to the air, and the mucilage coating will keep
the air from coming in contact with the inflamed tissue.
The following is the recommendation of an eminent physician for treating
burns from gunpowder:
“=In Burns from Gunpowder=, where the powder has been deeply imbedded in
the skin, a large poultice made of common molasses and wheat flour,
applied over the burnt surface, is the very best thing that can be used,
as it seems to draw the powder to the surface, and keeps the parts so
soft that the formation of scars does not occur. It should be removed
twice a day, and the part washed with a shaving brush and warm water
before applying the fresh poultice. The poultice should be made
sufficiently soft to admit of its being readily spread on a piece of
cotton. In cases in which the skin and muscles have been completely
filled with the burnt powder we have seen the parts heal perfectly
without leaving the slightest mark to indicate the position or nature of
the injury.”