The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1891-09-10
A MISSING ART.
a Few Practical Things About Nursing
That Every Girl Should Know.

a Few Practical Things About Nursing
That Every Girl Should Know.
1t is surely to be wished that every one
of our girls, on leaving school, or rather
upon finishing the course prescribed IN
their text books, should take another
course, of shorter or longer duration,
and that in a hospital training school for
nurses. They are all taught, as much
from observation as anything else, that
fainting person should be laid on the
back and famed, and freed from any
contraint of clothing about the waist or
or throat; that piece of hot flannel is
good for rheumatism and growing pain;
that hot lemonade at bedtime is good for
cold: that bicarbopatn of soda is good
for acidity; that they had best not sit
between fever patient and the fire, or
attend, before eating, any one suffering
from contagious illness, or come into
such presence while perspiring; and that
is about all they know in relation to ill
ness
r. might not be desirable that they
should know anything more of the life
of the sickroom, since their youth is the
time for light heartedness and JOY, and
one would spare them all that possibly
they might be spared. But by and by,
youth passing, or the necessity having
arisen through love- the need of know
ing more may come to them with force
bitterer than any direct knowledge Of
pain and suffering they could have gained
in three or six months course in a hos
pital ward
What suffering would be saved to
themselves as we'll as to those they love
in that by and by if, for instance, they
knew enough at sight Of the swift
pulsing jet from q severed artery, to tie
the bandage between the heart and the
cut; if they knew that hot water shuts
up the blood vessels and prevents con-
gestion and the black and blue mark of
bruise where the little fodder has
bumped his head; if they knew
that the wasting and fatiguing night
sweat Of consumption could be les
sened, if not hindered, by sponge
bath with salt water just before sleep,
or that the disgusting after favor Of cod
ilNCl OL1 SOuIl no llJO lIlG ItSIG Ol
delicate little Blue Point oyster by
quickly drunk glass of water in which
bit OF iron has rusted; that in sudden
cases of poisoning, warm, thin mustard
water will empty the stomach as soon as
anything that can be ordered in the
apothecary's cabalistic characters; and
II corrosive subimate has been swallow
ed, following it at once with the white
Of an eggwill turn it into what is known
as blue mass, and let the victim escape
with salvation; that patient can be
bathed in bed without letting any moist
IRE escape upon clothes or sheets if, the
sponge being squeezed, the back of the
bather's hand is hurredly turned and
wiped on handy thick towel before APP
plying the sponge to the surface of the
skin.
If they knew how to make u panado,
or an agreeable decoction Of toast water,
to cure hiccough, to make poultice,
to administer an enema, how much bet
ter off they would be than where their
ignorance obliges them to see those they
love suffer, or else have some one else,
better informed than themselves, give
their dear ones the relief they themselves
are longing to give. How much better
off would they and all concerned be il
they only knew how to make the bed
for the sick-not in the fashion they
have always thought sufficient, with the
under sheet well tucked in at the head,
and the upper sheet well tucked in at
the foot, but with that under sheet
drawn tightly as possible, and fastened
by means of strong safety pins at the
four corners, the sides and top and bot
tom, so that not wrinkle may come to
tease the poor sleepless wretch tossing
and turning for relief.
In fact, the things seem countless with
which a woman, as now educated, finds
herself unacquainted. And for the sake
of their own future happiness, to say
nothing of the well being of those for
whose comfort in time of sickness they
are responsible, it would be well if, be-
fore our girls began their careers Of
pleasure-their dances and lunches and |
teas and other amusements, however in !
nocent-they had first received the di-
ploma that might be given them for
skill in some Of the simpler branches OF
the great art Of nursing the sick.-Har. |
per's Bazaar.
Children During Hot Weather. |