In a sick room.

Date:
[1890?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: In a sick room. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    strain. Place it, in fever cases, between the fireplace and the door or window; it should never have its side against the wall. Never use a feather bed. If you cannot get a hair mattress, clean chaff or flock evenly packed are better. See that the mattress is turned every way every day, when the patient may be moved. ‘The pillows should not be piled one a-top of the other like a wall of bricks.’ Pull the underneath pillow a little forward to support the back, put the next pillow backward, and so on, alternately to the top pillow, which should be put back to raise the head, without throwing it forward. Of course the height or number of pillows must depend on the taste or disease of each patient. The bed-coverings should be warm, but they must not be heavy. Woollen blankets are much better than cotton quilts. A good bed-rest is formed by a chair placed upside down, with its back against the patient’s back. In cases of heart disease and some other complaints, when the sufferer is worn out with trying to sit up and not daring to lie down, this simple plan will be found a great alleviation. In making the bed, you must pull the underneath sheet and blanket perfectly flat so as to avoid all wrinkles. Take also great care to remove all bread¬ crumbs. Nothing is more destructive of a patient’s