A hand-book of nursing for family and general use.

Date:: [1878], ©1878

Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A hand-book of nursing for family and general use. Source: Wellcome Collection.

245/274 (page 241)

FAMILY HYGIENE. A clean house. Intelligent supervision of the work of the servants from garret to cellar is the only thing which will insure a healthy house. Cellars must be ventilated with open windows; must be perfectly dry, flagged or cemented; must be from time to time whitewashed, the walls being first well brushed and freed from the coal-dust and ashes which are sure to collect upon them. No accumulations of rubbish must be allowed in them, and no turnips, cabbage, or other strong- smelling vegetables be left uncovered, and perhaps rotting on the cellar-floor. Kitchens.—There should, of course, be no part of a kitchen which cannot be scrubbed, or rubbed, and white- washed ; this is generally understood ; but besides this, the sink and all drain-pipes need to be flushed daily with clean hot water, and to have, once a month at least, strong disinfectants poured down them; see page 156. The washings from vegetables and meat, the greasy and de- composing particles which float down the pipes and line their surface, become sources of danger, and were it not that the constant fire in the kitchen keeps the ventilation there good, there would be many cases of illness caused by foul air from sinks.