NURSING THE SICK. 383 



the most extreme hot weather. You need have no fear of the pa- 

 tient taking cold under such circumstances. Of course, the patient 

 is to be in bed and well supplied with the necessary covering; you 

 will find that patients do not take cold while in bed, and it is 

 better even to make use of artificial heat, by applying about the 

 patient's feet, legs and body warm bricks or bottles of hot water, 

 than to close the room and permit the patient to breathe impure air. 

 When patients first get out of a warm bed is the time they are most 

 likely to take cold. Great care, then, should be exercised in keep- 

 ing them warmly wrapped. Cleanliness of the skin and clothing, 

 pure air for breathing and proper food, are the chief essentials for 

 the sick. Yet how few are thus properly cared for; and, not infre- 

 quently, the result is the death of the patient, when to an inscrut- 

 able Providence, improper remedies or an incompetent physician, is 

 attached the blame which should rest upon an ignorant or negligent 

 nurse. 



Another extraordinary fallacy is the dread of night-air. What 

 air can we breathe at night, but night-air ? The choice is between 

 pure night- air from without and foul night-air within. Most 

 people prefer the latter an unaccountable choice. What will 

 they say if it is proved to be true that fully one-half of all the disease 

 we suffer from is occasioned by people sleeping with their windows 

 shut? An open window most nights in the year can never hurt any 

 one. In great cities night-air is often the best and purest air to be 

 had in the twenty-four hours. 



During infectious diseases, besides diluting the poison with an 

 abundance of atmospheric air, dilute carbolic acid, especially pre- 

 pared for use in the sick-room, may be used as an efficient and 

 agreeable disinfectant. The same solution should be frequently 

 sprinkled about the floors, bedclothes, handkerchief, etc., and be dif- 

 fused through the room by a spray -producer. It acts quickly as an 

 efficient disinfectant. It may also be used for personal disinfection 

 a point often but indifferently carried out by adding it to the 

 water in which the patient is washed, and is a valuable substitute 

 for aromatic vinegar. It also makes an excellent gargle for sweet- 

 ening the breath of fever-patients. It is also useful to visitors of 

 the sick, to prevent the risk from infectious diseases; for this pur- 

 pose a few drops should be sprinkled on the handkerchief before 

 entering the sick-room. Perfumed carbolic acid, which may be pro- 

 cured already prepared for use, will be found much more agreeable 

 than ordinary preparations of the pure acid. 



To the same end the room should be divested of all superfluous 

 furniture, carpets, bed-hangings, etc. 



The room should be provided with a second bed or convenient 

 couch to which the patient should, if possible, be removed for a 

 short time, at least once in the twenty-four hours. This insures a 

 change of atmosphere around the patient's body, and at the same 

 time allows the bed to be aired. 



