BACTERIOLOGY IN A NUTSHELL. 
become careless or forgetful of the laws which 
keep us healthy, the principal and most important 
ones of which are the daily bath, fresh out-of- 
door air and sunshine and exercise, also sufficient 
rest and sleep and proper food taken at regular 
intervals. Without obedience to these laws at 
the right time and in the right way the nurse 
cannot satisfactorily fulfill her duty to those the 
physician entrusts to her care. If she attempts it 
she soon becomes a physical or mental wreck, 
TT . , sometimes both. The average length of time the 
Length of Days, conscientious nurse is able to remain in active 
service ias care-taker of the sick is said to be 
about ten years. The time must of necessity be 
much shorter if her health is neglected. This 
does not by any means signify that we may ever 
^ A , shirk dutv. Oh, no! There are frequentlv times 
Our Neighbor. of emergency when the nurse, especially the nurse 
in private work, finds it impossible to have her 
hours “off duty.” So often there is no one in 
the home who is sufficiently experienced in the 
care of the sick to be trusted to relieve her 
even for a few hours of much needed rest. If 
the expense of a second trained nurse cannot be 
afforded, then the path of duty is obvious. These 
hours of danger, as a rule, do not last through 
many days. Then we must again take up oitr 
“sponge” and “plunge” baths, our brisk walks in 
the fresh air and sunshine more rigorously than 
ever, and so regain our lost tone. 
Let us decide right in the beginning as we 
enter nursing ranks to divide our time of recrea¬ 
tion in cultivating all the aids to health and use¬ 
fulness (not neglecting the mind), and so pro¬ 
long the “length of days” we shall spend in pur- 
98 
