270 -■ Missouri Agricultural Report. 



illness, select the best room in the house for the sick room. By best, I 

 mean the one where the patient can have the most quiet, fresh air and 

 sunlight and be freest from the odors of the house, and where the 

 excreta of the sick-room can be quickly and easily removed with least 

 olfense to the family. This room may be your much cherished parlor. 

 If so, remove the carpet, if it be one you prize, and cover the floor 

 with old but clean rugs easily removed for dusting. Be sure to remove 

 the bric-abrac and books, as they always catch and hold the dust, and 

 dust is danger in a sick-room. Dust every thing in the room daily with 

 a damp cloth except your piano and use a flannel for this, taking the 

 cloth outside to shake it frequently. The floor is swept by pinning a 

 cloth, moistened in hot water containing a little carbolic acid, over the 

 broom. ' Keep the shades up and have plenty of light and the direct 

 rays of the sun, if you can, in the room. Not, however, in the patient's 

 face or eyes — arrange the bed with this in view. There is health in sun- 

 light and it is Nature's great "non-poisonous" germicide. 



Have fresh air in the room day and night and whatever else* you do 

 or do not do, have fresh air. How to admit it in unstinted quantities in 

 cold weather may be a great problem — but remember it must be done. 

 Spend time and fuel keeping up a roaring fire if necessary, but keep the 

 windows open. Please do not misunderstand me however, when I say 

 fresh air — I do not mean drafts, nor do I mean necessarily cold air let 

 in from an adjoining room where it has been heated over and over. I 

 mean out-door-air, and I mean night air as well as day air. Open bed- 

 room windows and out door sitting rooms have changed many cases of 

 invalidism into health and energy. 



As pure air bathes the lungs and cleanses the blood current, so must 

 the daily application of water keep the body clean. A daily bath is 

 necessary unless the patient be very old and feeble or the vitality be 

 greatly reduced for some reason. I wish I might teach every woman 

 in the land to give a bed-bath skillfully and change the linen without 

 worry to the patient. Many do this quite well with no teaching save 

 the nursing instinct inherent in some women. Always remember to 

 protect your bed ivell, to expose only a small portion of the body at one 

 time and turn the patient as seldom as possible. Daily fresh linen is 

 worth making a great effort to obtain. The sheets should be as smooth 

 as possible, great pains being taken to press out all wrinkles. It is best 

 except under rare conditions, for the patient to wear only a night-dress 

 while in bed. Many make a grave mistake in retaining union suits or 

 other heavy under-garments. No bed patient can be kept really com- 

 fortable without frequent alcohol rubs, and this wearies the patient 

 unless it can be done without disturbing him. 



