Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1874-10-30

l have been in hospitals where hun
dreds and thousands of patients were
enduring the pangs of wounds and
bruises and sores, and have seen the in
fluence of distracting noise upon pros
trate army of sufferers. | have been in
the chamber of sickness where single
patient was soothed in his pains by the
gentle power of tender tone and the
more potent spell of perfect silence that
| acts like healing charm.
| was, years ago. prostrated by fever
and brought very low, so that to others IL
seemed the gates of death would open
and let me in. AT such times the voices
of loving friends, in conversation, were
so trying to my nerves that / longcd for
wings to fly away If they spoke low |
strained every hearing nerve to catch
their wordsS If they conversed in ordi.
nary tones it was like harsh music and
| nearly drove me out of my senses.
They would have given their right hands
or eyes to do me good, but if they had
only thought of my cars and the brain
they were distracting they would have
given me the precious boon of silence,
more valuable to me then than gold or
calomel or love.
DIRECTIONS.
1. From the sick-room exclude all per-
sons but the patient and the nurse in
charge. Whatever assistance is required
should be within easy reach, but the less
| the number in the room the less the
| temptation to converse. If a physician
| is in attendance let his directions be
0beyed, and discharge any nurse at once
who knows so much more than the doc
tor as to determine whether his prescrip-
tions are the best or motor dis
miss the doctor and install the
nurse in his place. In battle with
death there should be only one captain.
| If other members of the family beside
the one in charge are admitted, let them
enter softly, minister to the sufferer
their loving offices, and retire, soothing
and not disturbing him by their voices
or steps.
2. Let your feet be shod with a prepa-
ration of such peace as shall render your
footsteps inaudible as you move about
the room. Squeaking or heavy shoes arc
an intolerable annoyance to n sick per-
son. If yours are not so soft as to be
perfectly silent when you tread cover
the soles with wool or woolcn
cloth, and be sure that no one comes into
the room, on any errand whatever, whose
steps are to be disturbance to the quiet
you have ordained.
3. Shut out, as far as possible, the noise
of the street. In the country the annoy
ance of street noise is not suffered, and
the fiendish scream of the railroad en-
gincer is now justly undergoing protest
that we may hope, in the interest of hu
manity, will lead to its suppression. In
this country an impression prevails that
everybody may make all the noise hC
pleases, and that nobody has any rights
to quiet which anybody is bound to re
spect. Hence the engineer amuses him
self during the darkness of the night Ca!
man whistles passing a graveyard by
filling the whole country with those ter
!, rife shrieks which the Modocs an(
Comanches combined could not compass
and which invariably suggest the yell.
of emancipated ficnds. The sleeper.
in a thousand homes are startled from
their slumbers. Nervous invalids arr
frightened into fits. Infancy is made t
initiate the scream. And so from Bostor
+ to st. Louis, from Albany to Washington
every night in the year this long, rasping
excruciating, destroying yell, useless as i
has been abundantly proved and Otter
fatal in its effects, is perpetrated upon tn,
, peace and health of long-sufierlng peo
pie. This is one of the penalties of lib
, erty. And this is one of the nightly ter
, rors of the country.
t. Let in the sunshine. The sun ha
healing in his beams. Keep the room
, just as light by day and by night as it i
+ pleasant to the patient. Regulate it s,
as not to disturb his repose, but when
ever his eyes are open let them hav
f pleasant objects to rest on, and not hol
q ror of great darkness nor grotesqu
+ shadows, which to him assume the form
of monsters. Light is cheerful; dark
ness is depressing. Light is like life
o Darkness is death-like. Open the win
, dows for sunshine and air.
. might make these hints many more
but the only point | want to present i
! the importance of perfect quta in the SICK
room. " Haud ignarus mali, " etc, whic
means, " Having been there | know hoy
it is myself. ."-IrenGus, in ". Y. OJSerreI