Home nursing / by E. Margery Homersham.

  • Homersham, E. Margery.
Date:
[1893]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Home nursing / by E. Margery Homersham. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    thing she knows to be trying to her digestive organs. Light wines are more easily digested than ale or stout, and a nuise, while not altogether avoiding stimulants, will do well to avoid increasing the amount she usually takes. Should the illness end fatally, it will fall to the nurse s duty to prepare the body for interment. As soon after death as practicable, but not until after all friends have left the room, the body should be laid perfectly straight, with the hands at the sides; the jaw should be tied up with a folded handkerchief, and the eyelids closed and secured in position by strips of adhesive plaster if necessary, not with coins. After a leasonable delay (at least two hours), during which the corpse will grow cold, it must be washed reverently but thoroughly. A disinfectant diluted with warm water should be used, and the ablution should begin at the face and be continued downwards. The hair should be arranged as nearly as possible in the way it was worn in life j neither the plaster on the eye nor the bandage for the jaw need be replaced. A night¬ gown and stockings should be put on; the bed should be covered with a clean sheet, and a pillow should support the head. Another sheet should entirely cover the body with the exception of the face, over which a line handkerchief should be kept, and removed before any friends enter the room. When the illness has been infectious, disinfecting (bamtas) powder should be thickly sprinkled over the body under the nightgown, and strewn inside the coffin. The coffin should be closed, and the inter¬ ment take place as soon as possible. In addition to the sanitary precautions already de¬ tailed, should there be any wounds or much discharge nom the natural openings of the body, they should be
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