The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-11-01
NERVE PERIODS
 AT TIE HOSPITALS On Bad Days They Are All of
 of a Culver EFFECT FELT BY ALL Nothing Unusual May Have Happened, But a Sudden Wave of Unrest
 Spreads Over Patients and
 Attendants-AI Wrong.
EFFECT FELT BY ALI
From the New York Sun.

1 From the New York Sun.
 Three women in a popular tearoom the other afternoon had just welcomed a belated friend. As the newcomer re- ceived her cup of tea her hand shook so that the china rattled That's what comes of being in hos pital on one of it's bad days she said. with a little laugh. Every nerve I have l is quivering.
 Did anything happen" asked par tioularly placid member of the group, 1 Happen! Something always happens l in a hospital But the queer thing about it is that no matter what happens the general atmosphere will be quite calm 1 and cheerful until all of a sudden a day i comes when the whole institution seems to be as l am now all of a nervous quiver.
 You know I've been spending most of my time lately with my mother in - hospital. She is getting along nicely, and l read to her or we talk, and occasionally l make a little round of calls in the rooms near hers and bring back news to
 
 has never seen.
 Generally there is something rather restful to me in being there. The nurses go about quickly and cheerfully, the doc tor comes with his morning joke, one sees flowers and visitors going to the different rooms. and one has a feeling of hopefulness about everybody.
 One Gets Used to Things.
 ''One gets used even to the smell of dislnfeetants and to the occasional moans If these are especially bad you say cheerfully:
 .' Somebody's coming out from under the anesthetic. He'll feel better pretty soon
 You hear a nurse humming to her self along the hall, and on mothers floor there is young fellow. operated on for appendicitis a little while ago. who whistles softly when he can't think of anything else to do. All the doors stand open, and the whole life of the institution seems to be going smoothly and some how, pleasantly.
 Then, all of a sudden everything is changed. I knew this morning the mo- ment I got above the first floor that things were not going well Most of the doors were closed. Moth CT was trying in vain to tell two nurses how to place her in a comfortable posi- tion They couldn't get her fixed right. Of course they couldn't. This was the l day when nothing was right for any ! body.
 "She let them go when 1 came in, but she was in the state of nerves where she jumped almost out of her bandages l when a nurse dropped dish somewhere l down the hall. Nurses always drop 1 tninpS Or1 sllpb days anyway Moans of All Kinds. "I hadn't been in the room two min utes before a wailing moan began next door. The two rooms had a communi- eating door though why in the name of all that is sensible it should have been put there I don't know At any rate, 1t made the moans from next door quite as audible as if they had been in our own room.
 And they were such unacceptable means, long and wailing, and mingled with broken exclamations, that you couldn't help trying to interpret, though you didn't want to know what they were. l had left the door into the hall open. and no sooner had mothers neighbor be- gun to groan than somebody else across the hall Joined, but with little staccato grunts and signs that you could hear all over the floor.
 .I went to the door to close 1t. nurse rushed by with a nervous. preoccupied expression. The house doctor passed with scarcely a good morning.
 T could hear the bells ringing in the nurses room at the end of the hall as if every patient on the floor had finger on the push button and meant to keep 1t there till response came.
 1t Was Just a Bad Day.
 ''I went back into the room, but the moaning next door went on and on till thought I should scream myself. l had left the transom open and I could hear nurses scurrying up and down the hall, low exclamations. doors opening and shutting the rumble of the cart bringing a patient from the operating room.
 'I saw the head nurse before l came away and asked her if there had been anything unusual in the way of opera tions, or if any patient had died, or any thing really out of the ordinary happened. Not thing It was just bad day.
 They come about once in so often and it's like a zoo then. You've been in a menagerie when a sort of wave of unrest goes through it, haven't you? It spreads are bowling or roaring, or snapping, and even the crowd gets nervous and the keepers are cross and there is a general powwow.
 Well" with a sigh of exhaustion, that's the way it is in hospital on bad day, and this one has tuckered me clean out"