16 BACTERIOLOGY FOR NURSES 



her for the various departments of nursing; for 

 she cannot protect herself nor others from con- 

 tagious matter, if she does not thoroughly under- 

 stand the sources of infection, the methods of 

 transmission, and the means employed to prevent 

 it. Without a working knowledge of the technique 

 of bacteriology she can neither grasp nor practice 

 aseptic surgical technique, which in its elaborate 

 detail appears nothing short of an absurdity to the 

 ignorant, but to a nurse well trained in first prin- 

 ciples and daily routine, becomes an instinct as 

 much a part of her life as the instinctive avoidance 

 of fire or any other dangerous element. 



The schedule of exercises in the laboratory out- 

 lined in this little book should prepare the pupil- 

 nurse not only for her duties in operating and 

 dressing rooms, contagious and maternity wards, 

 but for a better understanding of every nursing 

 requirement from dusting the ward upward. She 

 must know why sputum cups and bedpans need 

 disinfection as well as scrubbing, why certain 

 dishes are separated from others and sterilized, 

 why catheters and douche points require such 

 minute care, why in certain cases the excreta as 

 well as the bed linen must be disinfected, etc. 

 It is not enough to give a nurse the merely mecham* 



