NURSING THE SICK. 389 



give off effluvia or moisture. The damp from towels, or any 

 other article hung up to dry, goes into the air the patient is to 

 breathe. One of the worst habits is that of leaving the chamber- 

 vessel with its contents under the bed. A vessel for such purposes 

 should never be left standing in the room for one moment with its 

 contents though it contain nothing but urine without being well 

 covered; and if ever so well covered, it should be emptied immed- 

 iately and well cleansed, lid and all. Day and night, make this an 

 invariable rule in a sick-room. 



There should be no standing liquid of any description in a sick- 

 room, not even the purest cold water ; because the cold water causes 

 the tainted atmosphere of the sick-room to settle on its surface and 

 condense into oily drops, to drink which would be disgusting. If 

 not drunk, the same particles are made gaseous by the warm air of 

 the room, are evaporated, mingled with the air and breathed into 

 the lungs. 



All medicines, bottles and via.ls, or anything else which reminds 

 of medicine, should be kept out of sight, except at the moment of 

 administering them. 



. The use of a chamber-vessel without a lid should be abolished, 

 whether among sick or well. You can easily convince yourself of 

 the necessity or this absolute rule by taking one with a lid and ex- 

 amining the underside of that lid. It will be found always covered, 

 whenever the utensil is not empty, by condensed, offensive moisture. 

 Where does that poisonous substance go when there is no lid? 



Earthenware, or if it can be conveniently procured, highly pol- 

 ished and varnished wood, are the only materials fit for patients' 

 utensils. 



A slop-pail should never be brought into a sick-room or any 

 other. It should be an invariable rule that the utensil should be 

 carried directly to the water-closet, emptied there, rinsed there 

 and brought back. There should always be water and a cock 

 in every water-closet for rinsing. But even if there is not, 

 you must carry water there to rinse with. Says a physi- 

 cian, " I have actually seen, in the private sick-room, the utensils 

 emptied into the foot-pan and put back unrinsed under the bed. 

 I can hardly say which is more abominable whether to do this 01 , 

 to rinse the utensil in the sick-room." 



External Applications The feet and legs should be ex- 

 amined by the hand from time to time, and whenever a tendency to 

 chilling is discovered, hot bottles or warm flannels, with some warm 

 drink, should be made use of until the temperature is restored. 

 Patients are frequently lost in the latter stages of disease, from 

 want of attention to such simple precautions. The nurse may be 

 trusting to the patient's diet, or to his medicine, which she is 

 directed to give him, while the patient is all the while sinking 

 from want of a little external warmth. Such cases happen even 

 during the height of summer. This fatal chill is most apt to 



