650 HOME AND HOUSEHOLD. 



a very valuable precaution when an invalid is very low or 

 exceedingly sensitive to noise. 



A nurse should always dress neatly and in good taste, avoid- 

 ing glaring colors in a sick-room. She should not be grim and 

 silent, neither should she talk too much, but use wise discretion. 

 Her authority should be unassuming and assured, and she should 

 not admit many visitors. She should be sympathetic, readily 

 excusing fretfulness and crossness, and should study to gratify 

 a patient's whims when they are not harmful. Medicine should 

 be given neatly and in as palatable a way as possible, and the 

 patient should not be irritated by seeing it stand about. All 

 things disagreeable should be kept out of sight. Have a closet 

 for medicines. If there is no closet in the room, and there are 

 no convenient drawers or shelves, have a box neatly covered and 

 nailed against the wall, out of the patient's sight. Shade it with 

 a little white curtain, and use it as a closet for bottles and 

 spoons. 



A nurse should possess an unfailing supply of ingenuity in 

 creating comfortable surroundings, together with appetizing 

 dishes of food for invalids who are convalescent. What greater 

 luxury to the sick, especially if the illness be accompanied with 

 fever, than to always have ready cool water? To secure this 

 without ice, melt a handful of coarse salt and a tablespoonful of 

 saltpetre in a quart of water poured into a shallow pan. Fill a 

 stone jar with fresh, clear water ; cover its mouth with a plate ; 

 set it in the pan ; thoroughly saturate a heavy cloth in water, and 

 with it cover the jar, tucking the ends of the cloth into the pan. 

 Set the whole arrangement, if possible, in a draught. Renew 

 the water in the pan and jar each day, but the salt and saltpetre 

 need not be added more than once a month. Firm, sweet but- 

 ter, if needed, can be served in the same manner. 



Nothing secures a quiet night's rest, after the fatigue of lying 

 in bed all day, better than to rub the body gently all over with a 

 Turkish towel. As recovery becomes assured, the individual will 

 be too delicate for some weeks to bathe freely in cold water, and 

 this dry rubbing should be a part of the daily toilet. An invalid's 

 food should always be prepared and presented with the utmost 

 neatness. A sick person is more fastidious than a well person. 

 He eats with his eyes as much as his mouth. He will take his gruel 



