172 PHYSIOLOGY AND TEMPfcRANCfi. 



becomes known, is to isolate the person. It is preferable to 

 have the sick room at the top of the house. The germ-tainted 

 air is more likely to ascend than descend, and in ventilating, 

 the foul air of the chamber will escape above the heads of the 

 occupants, and be soon lost in the atmosphere. 



The sick room should be large, bright and airy, but should 

 contain only such articles of furniture as are absolutely re- 

 quired for the comfort of the patient and nurse. The room 

 should be stripped of carpets, curtains, pictures and table 

 covers, unless they are subsequently to be burned. Also books, 

 papers, ornaments, and in fact everything that can be easily 

 removed. The less there is in the room the less surface there 

 is on which the disease germs can collect. There should be 

 no superfluous bedclothes, and the nurse must be satisfied 

 with a cushionless chair. She must not go about the house or 

 among the family. She must take her meals by herself, and 

 sleep either in the sick room or in a room similarly prepared, 

 and used only by herself. Only the nurse and doctor should 

 enter the room, and nothing should be taken back and forth 

 to and from the sick room. All the excretions of the body 

 must be disinfected at once. In a case of diphtheria, the 

 discharges from the throat should be collected on pieces of old 

 cotton, and promptly put in the fire. Any food or drink left 

 by the patient should be either burned or disinfected. 



Besides avoiding the sick room, the other members of the 

 family should, as far as possible, withdraw for the time from 

 society generally, and especially should the attendance of any 

 of the children at school be discontinued. 



Proper ventilation is necessary night and day. The old 

 idea that night air is dangerous has mainly lost its hold upon 

 the intelligent mind. But admitting that night air is objec- 

 tionable, it is far better for the patient than the close, tainted 

 air of the room. When the room remains altogether closed 

 for a time and then opened, the rush of foul air outward 



