Tropical home nursing / by R.J. Blackham.

  • Robert J. Blackham
Date:
1921
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Tropical home nursing / by R.J. Blackham. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    22/198 page 10
    WARMING, CooLING, LIGHTING, AND VENTILATING THE SicK-Room. 1. Warming.—An open, fire-place is the best means of warming an Indian sick room, as it ventilates the room as well as warming it. Stoves have numerous disadvan- tages. For instance, they make the room too dry, scorch the air and not infrequently add a poisonous gas to it. The iron sigyi with charcoal is to be avoided, as the fumes of charcoal are particularly dangerous in closed rooms, and even in well-ventilated rooms give rise to headaches. Oil stoves must not be used to warm a sick-room as they add waste products to the air and renderit impure. Coal and wood should be obtained in medium-sized pieces which can be wrapped in paper, picked up by the fingers to avoid noise. The fire should be poked when necessary with a piece of stick for the same reason. The room temperature should, in most cases, be kept at from 609 to 70° F. in the winter, and as low as possible in the hot weather. A nurse should remember that the coldest time of the twenty-four hours is between one and four o’clock in the morning, and it is then that a fire is mostly needed in the winter months. 2. Cooling—Punkahs, thermantidotes, khuskhus tatties, and electric fans are the means at our disposal for reducing the temperature of a tropical sick-room. The punkah is so familiar that it requires only a very brief reference. It is a poor means of reducing the temperature, but generally it is the only one available. The ther- mantidote is a powerful but dangerous means of cooling aroom. It requires constant supervision from the nurse. Khuskhus tatties are excellent, but only valuable when hot winds are blowing. The water used with tatties or ther- mantidotes is with advantage tinged with permangan-
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