First-aid treatment of burns and scalds.

In writing about the management of burns it is important to distinguish clearly between: (a) Treatment applied as a purely temporary measure at the scene of the accident, before the patient is despatched to a hospital or doctor. This is strictly first aid. (b) The formal treatment, carried out by a doctor or nurse, whether in the horiie, the surgery or the hospital, who has adequate facilities at his command. This we have termed, at the suggestion of Sir Almroth Wright, the plenary treatment, to convey the idea of completeness. (c) Subsequent dressings, skin grafting procedures, etc. The present paper is concerned only with first aid-and almost entirely with the local treatment of the burn. Civilian burns have been chiefly in mind, but the principles underlying treatment are the same for burns sustained on active service.