A Treatise on Anatomy, Physiology, and Hygiene (Revised Edition), Calvin Cutter [adventure books to read txt] 📗
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1009. Food. It is the duty of every woman to know how to make the simple preparations adapted to a low diet, in the most wholesome and the most palatable way. Water-gruel,[24] which is the simplest of all preparations, is frequently so ill-made as to cause the patient to loathe it. Always prepare the food for the sick, in the neatest and most careful manner.
1010. When the physician enjoins abstinence from food, the nurse should strictly obey the injunction. She should be as particular to know the physician’s directions about diet, as in knowing how and when to give the prescribed medicines, and obey them as implicitly.
1011. When a patient is convalescent, the desire for food is generally strong, and it often requires firmness and patience, together with great care, on the part of the nurse, that the food is prepared suitably, and given at proper times The physician should direct how frequently it should be taken.
1012. Pure Air. It is the duty of the nurse to see that not only the room is well ventilated in the morning, but that fresh air is constantly admitted during the day. Great care must be taken, however, that the patient does not feel the current.
1013. Bed-linen, as well as that of the body, should be aired every day, and oftener changed in sickness than in health. All clothing, when changed, should be well dried, and warmed by a fire previous to its being put on the patient or the bed.
1009. Should every woman know how to make the simple preparations adapted to a low diet? 1010. Should the nurse strictly obey the injunctions of the physician relative to food? 1011. What period of a person’s illness requires the most care in regard to the food? 1012. Give another duty of the nurse. 1013. What directions respecting the bed-linen of the patient? What is necessary when there is a change of clothing?
4351014. Temperature. The warmth of the chamber should be carefully watched by the nurse. The feelings of the patient or nurse are not to be relied on as an index of the temperature of the room. There should be a well-adjusted thermometer in every sick-room. This should be frequently consulted by the nurse.
1015. The temperature of the sick-chamber should be moderate. If it is so cold as to cause a chill, the disease will be aggravated. If, on the other hand, it is too warm, the patient is enfeebled and rendered more susceptible to cold on leaving the sick-chamber. The Latin maxim, “In medio tutissimus ibis,” (in medium there is most safety,) should be regarded in the rooms of the sick.
1016. Quiet. The room of the patient should be kept free from noise. The community should be guided by this rule, that no more persons remain in the room of the sick, than the welfare of the patient demands. It is the duty of the physician to direct when visitors can be admitted or excluded from the sick-room, and the nurse should see that these directions are enforced.
1017. The movements of the attendants should be gentle and noiseless. Shutting doors violently, creaking hinges, and all unnecessary noise, should be avoided. Most persons refrain from loud talking in the sick chamber, but are not equally careful to abstain from whispering, which is often more trying than a common tone.
1018. It is the duty of the nurse to ascertain the habits of the patient as respects the period for eating and sleep, when in health, that she may prepare the food and arrange the sick-room in accordance with the practice of the patient. 436 If the person who is sick is ignorant of the necessity of the removal of the waste products from the system the nurse should invite attention to these functions at such periods as are in accordance with the previous habits of the patient.
1014. Why should there be a well-adjusted thermometer in every sick-chamber? 1015. What is said of the temperature of the sick-chamber? 1016. Why should the sick-room be kept quiet? 1017. What is said of noise in the sick-chamber? Of whispering? 1018. Should the habits of the patient be regarded in reference to the period for eating and sleep?
1019. The deportment and remarks of the nurse to the patient should be tranquil and encouraging. The illness of a friend, or persons who have recently died, should not be alluded to in the sick-room. No doubts or fears of the patient’s recovery, either by a look or by a word, should be communicated by the nurse in the chamber of the sick. When such information is necessary to be communicated, it is the duty of the physician to impart it to the sick person.
1020. The nurse should not confine herself to the sick-room more than six hours at a time. She should eat her food regularly, sleep at regular periods, and take exercise daily in the open air. To do this, let her quietly leave the room when the patient is sleeping. A watcher, or temporary nurse, may supply her place. There is but little danger of contracting disease, if the nurse attends to the simple laws of health, and remains not more than six hours at a time in the sick-room.
1021. These necessary assistants, like the nurse, should have knowledge and practice. They should ever be cheerful, kind, firm, and attentive in the presence of the patient.
1022. A simple, nutritious supper should be eaten before entering the sick-room; and it is well, during the night, to take some plain food.
1019. What should be the deportment of the nurse toward the patient? Should doubts and fears of the patient’s recovery be communicated in the sick-room? When necessary to impart such intelligence, on whom does it depend? 1020. How long should a nurse remain in the sick-chamber at a time? 1021. What qualifications are necessary in a watcher? 1022. What directions in regard to the food of the watcher?
4371023. When watching in cold weather, a person should be warmly dressed, and furnished with an extra garment, as a cloak or shawl, because the system becomes exhausted toward morning, and less heat is generated in the body.
1024. Light-colored clothing should be worn by those who have care of the sick, in preference to dark-colored apparel; particularly if the disease is of a contagious character. Experiments have shown, that black and other dark colors will absorb more readily the subtile effluvia that emanate from sick persons, than white or light colors.
1025. Whatever may be wanted during the night, should be brought into the sick-chamber, or the adjoining room, before the family retires for sleep, in order that the slumbers of the patient be not disturbed by haste, or searching for needed articles.
1026. The same general directions should be observed by watchers, as are given to the nurse; nor should the watcher deem it necessary to make herself acceptable to the patient by exhausting conversation.
1027. It can hardly be expected that the farmer, who has been laboring hard in the field, or the mechanic, who has toiled during the day, is qualified to render all those little attentions that a sick person requires. Hence, would it not be more benevolent and economical to employ and pay watchers, who are qualified by knowledge and training, to perform this duty in a faithful manner, while the kindness and sympathy of friends may be practically manifested by assisting to defray the expenses of these qualified and useful assistants?
1023. When watching in cold weather, what precaution is necessary? 1024. What is said relative to the color of the clothing worn in the sick-room? 1025. What suggestions to watchers relative to the arrangement of the sick-chamber? 1026. What should watchers observe? 1027. What is said of employing those persons to watch who labor hard during the day?
1028. Poisoning, either from accident or design, is of such frequency and danger, that it is of the greatest importance that every person should know the proper mode of procedure in such cases, in order to render immediate assistance when within his power.
1029. Poisons are divided into two classes—mineral (which include the acids) and vegetable.
1030. The first thing, usually, to be done, when it is ascertained that a poison has been swallowed, is to evacuate the stomach, unless vomiting takes place spontaneously. Emetics of the sulphate of zinc, (white vitriol,) or ipecacuanha, (ipecac,) or ground mustard seed, should be given.
1031. When vomiting has commenced, it should be aided by large and frequent draughts of the following drinks: flaxseed tea, gum-water, slippery-elm tea, barley water, sugar and water, or any thing of a mucilaginous or diluent character.
MINERAL POISONS.1032. Ammonia.—The water of ammonia, if taken in an over-dose, and in an undiluted state, acts as a violent corrosive poison.
1033. The best and most effectual antidote is vinegar. It should be administered in water, without delay. It neutralizes the ammonia, and renders it inactive. Emetics should not be given.
1034. Antimony.—The wine of antimony and tartar emetic, if taken in over-doses, cause distressing vomiting. In addition to the diluent, mucilaginous drinks, give a tea-spoonful of the sirup of poppies, paregoric, or 440 twenty drops of laudanum, every twenty minutes, until five or six doses have been taken, or the vomiting ceases.
1025. Is it useful to know the antidotes or remedies for poison? 1029. Into how many classes are poisons divided? 1030. What is the first thing to be done when it is ascertained that poison has been swallowed? 1031. What should be taken after the vomiting has commenced? 1032. What effect has an over-dose of ammonia? 1033. The antidote? Should an emetic be given for this poison? 1034. What effect has an over-dose of the wine of antimony or tartar emetic?
1035. The antidotes are nutgalls and oak bark, which may be administered in infusion, or by steeping in water.
1036. Arsenic.—When this has been taken, administer an emetic of ipecac, speedily, in mucilaginous teas, and use the stomach-pump as soon as possible.
1037. The antidote is the hydrated peroxide of iron. It should be kept constantly on hand at the apothecaries’ shops. It may be given in any quantity, without injurious results.
1038. Copper.—The most common cause of poisoning from this metal, is through the careless use of cooking utensils made of it, on which the acetate of copper (verdigris) has been allowed to form. When this has been taken, immediately induce vomiting, give mucilaginous drinks, or the white of eggs, diffused in water.
1039. The antidote is the carbonate of soda, which should be administered without delay.
1040. Lead.—The acetate (sugar) of lead is the preparation of this metal, which is liable to be taken accidentally, in poisonous doses. Induce immediate vomiting, by emetics of ground mustard seed, sulphate of zinc, and diluent drinks.
1041. The antidote is diluted sulphuric acid. When this acid is not to be obtained, either the sulphate of magnesia, (epsom salts,) or the sulphate of soda, (glauber’s salts,) will answer every purpose.
1042. Mercury.—The preparation of this mineral by which poisoning is commonly produced, is corrosive sublimate. The mode of treatment to be pursued when this poison has been swallowed, is as follows: The whites of a dozen eggs should be beaten in two quarts of cold water, and a tumbler-full given every two minutes, to induce vomiting. When the whites of eggs are not to be obtained, soap and water should be mixed with wheat flour, and given in copious draughts, and the stomach-pump
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