Rensselaer Republican, Volume 19, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 February 1887 — THE SICK ROOM. [ARTICLE]

THE SICK ROOM.

— How to Make a Poultice. Dr. Brunton, in Brain, the new London .periodical, gives 4ha~ fallowing practical hints on this subject; “The common-prac-tice in making poultices of mixing the linseed meal with hot water, and applj'ing it directly to the skin, is quite wrong; because if we do not wish to burn the patient, we must wait unlßa great portion of the heat has been loss. The proper method is to take a flannel bag (the size of the poultice required), to fill this with linseed poul'lice as hot as it can possibly be made, and to put between this and the skin a second piece of flannel, so that there shall be at least two thicknesses of flannel between the skin and the poultice itself. Above the poultice should be placed more flannel, or a piece of cotton-wool, to prevent it from getting cold. By this method we are able to apply the linseed-meal boiling hot, without burning the patient, and the heat gradually diffusing through the flannel, affords a grateful sense of relief which cannot be obtained by other means. There are few ways in which such marked relief is given to abdominal pain as by the application of a poultice in this manner.” —-—_ Kursing .searlet Pcrer. The child should be nursed by one who has all the details of the case under her charge, who should wear the simplest kind of clothing, that can be daily changed and washed or aired. she should have an adjoining room in which to keep her clothes and make her toilet. Everything that comes in contact with the child, such al towels, brushes; blankets, or sheets, should be kept rigidly separate, and thoroughly boiled and aired before being taken from the premises. The room should be kept thoroughly ventilated, either by keeping open a window in the adjoining room or by some arrangement attached to the window of the sick-room which will allow the ingress and egress of the air without a draught; its temperature should be kept at about 68

degrees, and regulated by a thermometer. If the room receives its heat from a furnace, the hot air should Le made so pass over a pail of water containing either Lnbarraque's solution or Platt’s Chlorides, and a towel with one end dipped in finch a solution should be tacked liver the register. If there be a stove, or, better than all, an open grate, these solutions can be placed near by, bq as to lie readily evaporated and distributed throughout the room. The chamber should always contain some such solution in which to receive tbe excreta. A small quantity of nriue should daily be collected in a clean vessel for the doctor’s examination. It is ÜBnal to anoint tbe child with some greasy substance; this allays the intense itohing or pricking, which is most annoytag; 1t Softens the skin, which is inflamed and swollen; it depresses the fever to a certain extent, and it serves to collect tbe scales of the s in, which, if shed, serve as oarriers of contagion, and which are usually shed in flakes. The child should have its month washed once or twice daily, as also other parts of its body, for purposes of cleanliness, and the wuter used can contain either Labarrnqne’s solution or vinegar Listerine, nnd possibly the doctor will order the frequent use of the hand-spray, such as is employed with cologne, nsinfc some good disinfectant for the throat in these cases. Scarlatina, as far as we know at the present time, only comes from previous ciises of the disease. Cleanliness not only lessens the danger of serious complications which are often fatal, and mitigates the severity of an attack, but it is the great germ-destroyer, and prevents the spread of this dread, disease in households. — Dr. J. M. Keating, in Babyhood.