I was asked to write a paper on a first aid kit, but found it very difficult. A simple list is soulless, and a complete guide is too long, so herewith some passing incomplete thoughts.

For a complete guide to first aid, one of the smaller books can be taken for information on pressure points, how to get gnats out of birds’ eyes, and light reading when neaped. I like First aid in the Royal Navy (B.R.25) — splendid pictures.

The kit can be carried in a gas mask case with lots of plastic bags and plastic bottles. I would keep the flares in it too, if I had a kit.

Cuts, Scratches and Abrasions — all probably very dirty — lets hope it didn’t happen near a sewer outfall — should be cleaned with an antiseptic lotion, perhaps Flavine, which can conveniently be carried in the form of tablets for solution. Bandages and adhesive tape are all needed but get waterlogged. The new waterproof plaster is an advance, but is more expensive. A leather fingerstall can be a help.

Sunburn and small burns — the usual sunburn creams and lotions — Nivea for cracks around the mouth. An anti-histamine cream such as Dibistin is jolly good for small burns inflicted by the hot end of the cooker. DON’T PRICK BLISTERS. Bigger burns may need Vaseline and antibiotic impregnated gauze applied. Big burns do not come in the scope of this paper. Keep clean and dry if possible. International ‘W’ is appropriate.

Sprains and fractures are painful, but less so if you can support or immobilise the damaged member. Crepe bandage, adhesive plaster, triangular bandages and sail battens can all be pressed for duty in splint making (and also for boat repairs). An oar will help to immobilise a broken thigh.

Sea sickness is a curse, for which the remedy is often worse than the disease, since many pills make most subjects sleepy, which is all very well for a supine passenger, but not for a mate and master and cabin boy too. So it is as well to try new ‘cures’ when a degree of sleep and indifference need not be fatal. Kwells are old and tried, and often work.

Exposure is not really first aid, but many chaps are dead of it who would have survived had they been able to shelter in a simple plastic bag to avoid the wind cooling their wet clothes. Don’t drink salt water.

Hangovers and headaches. Compound tablets of Codeine B.P. much cheaper than the much-advertised analgesic pills, and often identical.

Resuscitation of the apparently drowned. Act immediately! AS FAST AS POSSIBLE:- Clear the mouth and throat of water, mud and seaweed lift his chin (to open air passages) close his mouth blow down his nose

If you are doing it right you will see the chest rise, and then fall when you take your mouth away. Repeat every 5-6 seconds. Persist while there is a pulse, or the pupils are small, or the colour is pink, and in any case for at least ½ hour, or until adequate spontaneous respiration starts. DON’T play about with the old back-pressing methods. Though I have done it myself, patients live despite it, not because of it.

DON’T give hot sweet tea (or anything else to eat or drink) as treatment for shock when there is a possibility of an operation being needed shortly. This can be fatal.

Water Sterilization tablets can be got from Blacks.