The nurses' handbook and catalogue of nursing requisites / S. Maw, Son & Thompson.

  • S. Maw, Son & Thompson.
Date:
[1898]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The nurses' handbook and catalogue of nursing requisites / S. Maw, Son & Thompson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    16/212 (page 4)
    mistake to think that night air is harmful, for it is undoubtedly much purer than day air, especially in large towns where so many chimneys are pouring out their myriads of smuts during the lighter hours of the day; and the patient should not be deprived of it unless suffering from bronchitis or some other lung complaint in which the coolness ol the air might cause irritation of the mucous membrane of the bronchi. Plants should always be removed from the sick room during the night, inasmuch as they give off carbonic acid gas, and hence tend to add to the impurity of the air. During the day, however, they are desirable, for under the influence of sunlight they are able to lake up carbonic acid gas from the air and to decompose it, throwing off oxygen, and thus assisting to purify. CHAPTER II. SPECIAL DUTIES. Choosing Thermometers.—It is always worth while for a nurse to have a good clinical thermometer, and one which registers accurately. There are instruments now to be obtained at extremely low prices, but it stands to reason that these cannot be so carefully made as the somewhat more costly ones. The cheaper ones are mostly of German manufacture, and consequently appear before the public without any maker’s name upon them, since English firms are prevented by law from putting their names upon German goods unless the words “ Made in Germany” also appear upon them. Hence it is always as well for a nurse, when choosing a thermometer, to fight shy of all those which do not bear an English maker’s name, and not to allow herself to be persuaded into buying a cheap thermometer because it costs less money than a dearer one. The dearer ones are really the cheapest, because they can always be relied upon. All the thermometers bearing the name of S. Maw, Son & Thompson are tested according to the Kew standard before being sent out to the public, and each one is guaianteed to be correct. For'a small additional fee a “Kew Certificate” can be supplied with any one of these instruments, showing to how high a degree of exactitude they are graduated. There are many different varieties of clinical thermometers now to be obtained; some have their advantages, whilst others are practically useless. No doubt the best, from a nurse’s point of view, is one with a magnifying index, such as Maw’s “Twilight” Thermometer, which has the glass so cut as to magnify the column of mercury and thus enable the observer to see it more clearly (see page 96). Another very excellent instrument, and one much patronized by the public, is called the “Improved Family Clinical,” and has the scale above the normal point marked in red, in order to indicate to the untrained minxl the point at which medical advice should be sought.