NURSING THE SICK. 395 



But hold your hand over a cup of hot water for a minute or two and 

 then, by merely rubbing with the finger, you will bring off flakes 

 of dirt or dirty skin. After a vapor bath you may peel your whole 

 self clean in this way. What I mean is, that by simply washing or 

 sponging with water you do not really cleanse your skin. Take a 

 rough towel, dip one corner in very hot water (if a little spirit be 

 added it will be more effectual), and then rub as if you were rubbing 

 the towel into your skin with your fingers. The black flakes which 

 will come off will convince you that you were not clean before, 

 however much soap and water you may have used. These flakes 

 are what require removing. And you can really keep yourself 

 cleaner with a tumbler of hot water and a rough towel and rubbing, 

 than with a whole apparatus of bath and soap and sponge without 

 rubbing. It is nonsense to say that anybody need be dirty. Pa- 

 tients have been kept as clean by these means on a long voyage, 

 when a basinful of water could not be afforded and when they could 

 not be moved out of their berths, as if all the appurtenances of 

 home had been at hand. 



" Washing, however, with a large quantity of water, has quite 

 other effects than those of mere cleanliness. The skin absorbs the 

 water and becomes softer and more perspirable. To wash with 

 soap and soft water is, therefore, desirable from other points of 

 view than that of cleanliness." 



There are some common errors prevalent among those who 

 have the care of the sick, in reference to diet, a few of which we 

 shall mention. 



One is the belief that beef -tea is the most nutritive of all ar- 

 ticles. Now, boil a pound of beef into beef -tea; evaporate your 

 beef -tea, and see what is left of your beef. You will find that there 

 is barely a teaspoonful of solid nourishment to half a pint of water 

 in beef -tea; and although there is a certain nutritive quality in it, 

 yet there is little to be depended upon with the healthy or convales- 

 cent, where much nourishment is required. Again, it is an ever- 

 ready saw that an egg is equivalent to a pound of meat, whereas it 

 is not at all so; while moreover it is seldom noticed with how many 

 patients, particularly of nervous or bilious temperament, eggs dis- 

 agree. All puddings made with eggs are distasteful to them in 

 consequence. An egg whipped up with wine is often the only form 

 in which they can take this kind of nourishment. Arrow-root is 

 another grand dependence of the nurse. As a vehicle for wine, and 

 as a restorative quickly prepared, it is all very well ; but it is nothing 

 but starch and water. Flour is both more nutritive and less liable 

 to ferment and is preferable wherever it can be used. 



Again, milk and the preparations from milk are a most 

 important article for the sick. Butter is the lightest kind of animal 

 fat, and though it lacks the sugar and some or \,ne other elements 

 which are in milk, yet it is most valuable both in itself and in en- 

 abling the patient to eat more bread. Flour, oats, barley and their kind 



