National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1874-04-04
TIE SICK ROOM

For this apartment, especially in winter, the
sunniest room in the house should be selected
There is a life and healing in the summer ray,
even if its light, which is only part of the ray,
is excluded. We all feel instantly, on entering
a room on which the sunlight never falls, q
chill and an absence of something essential to
cheer and brightness. Observation shows that
in hospitals more patients die in shady than in
the sunny wards, and in cities disease is more
fatal on the shady side of the street than on its
opposite.
Next in importance to sunshine m the sick
room is ventilation. If well people need fresh
air, much more dosthey that are sick A free
circulation of air must be provided without en-
dangering at all the safety Of the patient. In
cool weather an open stove, (if possible, q soap-
stone stove, with a wood fire, is perhaps as
effective and pleasant q method as any other of
securing this.
The aspect of the room should be inviting and
pleasant. If the walls are naked, bring the
pictures from that shut-up room, the parior, or
the guest-chamber, and hang them where the
patient can enjoy them. Set rose or a gera-
mum in the window. If plants were unhealthy,
the air of greenhouses would be different from
the outer air, which is not the case For the
sake of the nurse, we would have the sick
room on the first floor, to save the inconyen-
tence and fatigue Of continual running I'D and
down stairs; for the sake of the patient we
would have 1t on the second floor, which Ia
usually more quiet and more thoroughly
warmed than the first. If 1t is on the second
floor, let every convenience be provided that
can save steps-a broom, q dust-pan, poker,
tongs, by all means an earth closet, and every
thing else that Is likely to come into frequent
requisition-so that everything necessary to be
done can be attended to with the utmost facil-
tty. 1t is the want of little conveniences at
hand that renders nursing in private families
SO fatiguing.
The utmost tidiness and cleanliness should
be secured In the sick room. The senses of the
patient, rendered acute by disease, make dis
are in health: fsefy soiiedd ' aish 'D 9! cies
should be at once removed from the room, and
no accumulations of anything disagreeable per-
mitted. We heard young gentlemen of re-
fnement and culture say once that he should
have married such young lady If her brothers
sick room, in which she was nurse, had not
been so untidy. Not, however, from interested
motives should the nurse sbhor untidiness,
but because It Is in itself abhorrent "Cleap-
illness is next to goodness" |
Well-a.red bedding is essential to the COM
fort Of the patient. This can be secured with |
little management. The patient may be re- !
moved to an easy chair or lounge, and the |
bed be thoroughly shaken out of doors, IL the |
weather is fair, or in a room with the windows |
opened If the weather is foul; then warmed by |
tho fire and put upon the bed. None but the |
sick are fully alive to the blessedness of clean
sheets. How much of disease Is only the |
choking, In one form or another, of the natural |
outlets of the bodyl
The comfort Of the patient In many cases Is
greatly increased by bathing. A cloth wrunq
from tepid saleratus or soda water NAV be
passed over the body under the bed-clothes,
and, If followed by Q dry towel, there Is little
danger that the patient will take cold.
Ii there must be light in the room all night,
BY all means use tapers. A box of these, cost
ing ten cents, can be bought at the apothecary's,
and viii last good many weeks. Each box
contains tiny socket or circle of tin with three
sharp points, each holding bit of cork into
his socket sets button-mold . quarter of an
nch In diameter, with Q hole in the middle, in
which is inserted bit Of waxed wicking. The
whole affair, not larger in circumference than q
walnut, floats on the surface of q cup or tum-
bier full of lard OIL Il
1t gives very soft and pleasant light, and is
perfectly safe. Kerosene lamps cannot be
urned down without filling the room with I'M
consumed products Of combustion, which are
'ery unwholesome; candles and oil lamps are
Ipt to smoke. The taper IL economical, pleas
mt and safe. We have been thus circumstan-
ial in describing this little contrivance so that
hose at distance from drug stores can make
for themselves. In the nursery Il Is invaiu- ;
bile. An outlay of thirty-thr cents will keep
light in the sick room for months. 1;
The nurse shall be "vigilsnt, prompt, firm,
oedient, selfpossessed, her presence q balm, :
ler step soft, her eye like May morning, her
oice lullaby" With these qualifications,
no room that we have suggested, It would
. Aiinost pleasure to be comfortably sick.
Inc Legislature Of North Carolina has passed
n act entitled "for the better security off
uman hfe." It provides that any person who I,
sells or deals in sp,rituous
quors as drink, Of any name or kind. con.
aiming foreign properties or ingredients poi Z
)nous TO the system, shall be furnished ,.ri,h 2