The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1891-09-03
The Sick Room,

There is always more OF less sickness
in any town, or country neighborhood.
A good nurse is often worth more than
the doctor. His visits are short while
the watchful and intelligent nurae is
Studying the symptoms all day. An in
experienced doctor aided by a wise
nurse, is better in most fevers than the
most skilled physician with roor
nurse. Then in case of sickness in
the family, there should be one perHon,
or two, whose business it is to watch
and report all changes and conditions
to the doctor.
Besides skillful nurse or two, no one
else should be allowed in the room of
sick perscn. know that I am writing
that which will not please the msjori-
ty of people. Through mistaken kind
ness, crowds of neighbors often rush in
to see the sick person. If they are
stopped at the front gate and thanked
for their kind attention, and requested
not to go in the house, some OF them
are weak enough to take ofense. l
now call to mind several cases of se-
we're sickness in the country. The
houses were not large and the rooms SO
constructed that not one of them was
private. On approaching the house, it
looked as if meeting was going on
from the number of horses hitched
around The piazza was full OF kind
people who meant well, but they did
not know how to 60 about it. The
patient was suffering with q constant
fever which made him very nervous.
Two or three days and nights of these
kind attentions brought on delirium
and death. A whole faculty of doctors
could not have saved him with that
crowd of kind neighbors hanging
around.
once bad good ncighbor who took
special pleasure in visiting the sick
room. The scene would call up every
case of horrible sickness and all the
terrible deaths this person had ever
heard of. She was obliged to talk
about them and talk she would. When
it came to bathing the head or smooth
ing the pillow or doing dozen other
little soothing things, she was not worth
cent. When she left, it required an
hour or two to get the patient back to
normal condition. If that coed
hearted woman had been informed that,
while her attentions were appreciated,
positive orders had been given to keep
the house perfectly quiet and she could
not enter she would have been greatly
offended.
A little common sense thould be used
when people are sick. Sometimes the
family does not like to usurp the au-
thority belonging to it. In that case
some discreet neighbor should take
charge and call in two or three sklllful
assistants, using them on alternate days.
All others should be kept from the
house and especially the sick room. A
neighbor when calling should never
enter the house, unless he is asked to 60
in by the doctor, or some one who under
stands the case.
Above all things a sick person needs
rest and very quiet time. They cannot
have this if the whole neighborhood are
allowed to call and stay all day. Sunday
is the favorite day for visiting them, and
of course you will always find them
much worse on Monday after thought
less crowd has kept them under an
intense state of excitement for hours.
These hints are thrown out to correct q
great evil which still prevails in some
communities.-RUTH RAYMOND, in
Spartanburg Spartan