FIRST AID, the term applied to a plan for popularizing the knowledge of certain simple measures for the relief of the injured and dis tressed. The movement began with the forma tion of the Saint John's Ambulance Association, London, England, in 1877, and was shortly fol lowed by the rise of similar organizations in the United States, lectures and practical class demonstrations being established. Instant ap plication is necessary in many cases of sudden illness or accident if remedial measures are to succeed. Thus a slight knowledge of the course of arteries and of means for compressing them will enable one to stay a fatal flow of blood. Antidotes for poison rapidly lose value as time elapses. The resuscitation of the drowning is largely a matter of persistence in artificial res piration. General knowledge of the cleansing of wounds is all-important. This knowledge is now widely used in armies and among people most liable to witness accidents, as trainmen, etc., circulars of instruction and packets con taining the most necessary articles for dressing wounds being often furnished by those in au thority.
(Heb. bekor, Gr. prOtotokos, Lat. primogenitus), in scriptural use, signifies the first male offspring, whether of man or of other animals, due to the Creator by the Mo saic law as a recognition of his supreme do minion. The first-born male, whether of men or of animals, was devoted from the time of birth to God, and the first-born male child had to be redeemed one month after birth by an of fering not exceeding in value five shekels of sil ver (Exod. xiii, 13), provided the child lived longer than that period. The first-born male of animals also, whether clean or unclean, was equally regarded as devoted to God. By the Mosaic law primogeniture had certain privileges attached to it, the chief of which were the head ship of the family and a double portion of the inheritance. Among other nations considerable variety existed as to the succession of children to the inheritance of their parent. See INHER