Cottage hospitals : their objects, advantages, and management / by Edward John Waring.

  • Waring, Edward John, 1819-1891.
Date:
1867
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Cottage hospitals : their objects, advantages, and management / by Edward John Waring. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    on the ground that she thought such a measure would conduce to the dear soul's comfort, whereas, in truth, such a proceding was the most injudicious that could have been adopted. Besides which, in the humbler walks of life, household cares necessarily interfere with the due discharge of the duties of the sick room, and the patient, in the majority of cases, stands a greater chance of being neglected than of being over-nursed. In times of sudden or serious illness, neighbours in the country generally exhibit a laudable disposition to afford their best aid; but as they are for the most part ignorant of the simplest principles of nursing, they are quite as likely to do mischief as good; and in protracted cases their aid, originally tendered more as a matter of impulse than of principle, cannot be relied upon. By means of these Cot- tage Hospitals it is purposed to secure for agricultural districts the permanent services of a good nurse, and this alone would be a boon of no small moment. As I shall hereafter offer a few remarks on the subject of nurses, it will suffice in this place to observe that wherever the state of the funds will warrant the expense, the services of a nurse who has received regular training should be secured; but lacking this, choice should be made of some respect- able trustworthy woman, who has a good character for skill, intelli- gence, and sobriety, who will faithfully carry out the instructions she receives from the medical officer. Adequate supply of food, and its due regulation.—Within the last few vcars there has been a marked change in the treatment of • ■■•11 disease, the nourishing and stimulating system having superseded the low antiphlogistic one previously in vogue. And it is a fact, explain it as we may, that patients, with very few exceptions, make better recoveries under the new than they did under the old regime. It has this disadvantage, however; it is far more costly, and hence less within the range of a poor man's limited means. The difference of cost between gruel and beef tea, and still more be- tween toast-and-water and port wine, makes all the difference in the world to the pocket of the poor man, especially in cases of protracted illness. In fact, very few of our agricultural poor are in a position to defray the expenses of diet, using the terra in its modern signification, as applied to disease. If it were not that a helping hand is almost always ready in our rural districts to supply requisite food and nourishment, the condition of the poor in their own dwellings in times of sickness, would be deplorable in the extreme. Even with adventitious aid, there can be little doubt that, in the vast majority of cases, the labouring classes have to undergo great privations, when overtaken by sickness. In those exceptional cases in which there is no deficiency of material, there exists great ignorance as to the mode of turning it to the best account, and of rendering it fit for the stomach of the invalid. Now in the Cottage Hospital, not only is there the requisite amount of good wholesome food, but an attendant, in the person