Convalescence. | 483 
sequence succumbs to an attack he would otherwise suc- 
cessfully resist. It may be assumed then that disease is 
first established by more or less debility, which increases 
in the ratio of the duration of illness; the longer it lasts 
the greater the debility. 
Grant that the strength of the disease is broken, is it not 
clear that the frame upon which its force has been expended 
must be in a state urgently calling for the application of 
means to repair lost tone? Notwithstanding this, little 
thought is directed to the best method of bringing about 
complete recovery; the doctor’s mission is usually con- 
sidered at an end when the worst symptoms of a disease 
have subsided, the nursing too falls off in quality, and is 
sometimes given up altogether, and just at the critical time 
when safety and pristine vigour may be almost assured if 
sound medical advice be given and followed, and if judicious 
nursing be bestowed, at the time when the condition of the 
invalid demands redoubled care in order that the breaches 
made by disease may be repaired, and the system exhausted 
by its battle may again grow strong, all necessary duty is 
considered done, the medical man puts on his hat, the nurse 
makes her curtsey, and both depart, leaving the sufferer to 
crawl back as best he may to something like health, or.to 
glide imperceptibly into fatal disease. 
The principal points to bear in mind in the treatment of 
convalescents are change of air, implying as it does change 
of scene, good nursing, and scrupulous attention to diet and 
all matters of hygiene. 
In the case of dwellers in cities, where various manufac- 
tories and the congregation of a dense population contami- 
nate the air with countless impurities, it is most essential 
that change should be a prime element in bringing the 
convalescent round ; the mere change of the surroundings 
is beneficial to the invalid, who, after a long and tedious 
illness, yearns to get out of the sphere of past weariness 
and pain: tosuch a degree is this felt, that change of scene 
forms a most important item in counting up the aggregate 
good wrought by change, so that if from a physical point 
of view it is of service, from a moral point it is equally 
worthy of commendation. This means of effecting a cure 
can be adopted of course by the well-to-do, and with res- 
pect to those of smaller income it is right that they should 
know that money so spent is an economical investment, for 
say that two months will pass ere the convalescent living i in 
a crowded town is restored to comparative health, it would 
NEW SERIES.—VOL. I. RR 
