500 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



The Ibed should be in the lightest part of the room, far enough re- 

 moved from the wall to allow a free circulation of air around it, and 

 to be easily accessible from both sides. It should be so situated that 

 the patient can see out of the window. If you can give him a view 

 from two windows, so much the better. Few people who have not 

 experienced it can realize the weariness of mind which arises from 

 long confinement to one set of surroundings. You have but to spend 

 a few days in one room to become painfully familiar with every petty 

 detail of its furnishing, and such variety as may be obtained from a 

 glimpse out-of-doors will often afford an infinite relief. 



It is frequently recommended that all superfluous and merely orna- 

 mental articles be removed from the sick-room, as useless incumbrances, 

 only affording so many additional lodging-places for dust ; but, unless 

 you are dealing with contagious disease, you will find it better to spend 

 a little more time in the removal of dust than to leave the sufferer 

 with only the bare walls to gaze at, and nothing visible to vary the 

 monotony of his thoughts. That a carpet or wall-paper of set pattern, 

 or anything else presenting regularly recurrent figures, is objection- 

 able, does not need to be suggested to any one who has ever been 

 beset by the counting and classifying fiend who so often takes posses- 

 sion of the invalid left with no occupation for his vacant mind beyond 

 such as is suggested by the objects within his limited field of vision. 



Let the room be as cheerful as possible in its aspect. Flowers are 

 quite permissible. Growing plants are better than cut flowers. The 

 latter must be removed as soon as they cease to be perfectly fresh. 



There should be no medicine-bottles or medical appurtenances of 

 any kind in sight. They belong in the closet, and should be kept 

 there, except when in actual use. 



A thermometer is indispensable. Never permit yourself to judge 

 the temperature of the room by your own sensations or by those of 

 your patient. Hang the thermometer as nearly as possible in the cen- 

 ter of the room at all events, neither against a chimney in use or the 

 outer wall. The one will be hotter and the other colder than the 

 mean temperature, which is what you wish to have registered. This 

 should be, unless you have contrary orders from the physician, about 

 G8 Fahr. 



The necessity for absolute cleanliness can not be too strenuously 

 insisted upon. Dusting can only be efficiently done with a damp 

 cloth. The ordinary methods in vogue simply serve to transfer the 

 dust from one spot to another. Removal, not distribution, should be 

 the object in view. The room can only be thoroughly swept and 

 cleaned when the patient can be moved out of it for a time ; but the 

 dust may be removed from the carpet quite effectively and noiselessly 

 by means of a damp cloth wrapped around a broom. 



Not only for the sake of appearances, but from more directly hy- 

 gienic considerations, are cleanliness and order to be regarded. 



