The nurse in hot climates / by Edward Henderson.

  • Edward Henderson
Date:
1903
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The nurse in hot climates / by Edward Henderson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    hands have been soiled in attendance on a case of cholera or the like, the nurse should wash them with turpentine before she uses soap, and may then as a further precaution immerse them in some antiseptic solution. The nurse must of course never eat before her hands have been thoroughly washed, and all soiled garments should be got rid of before she sits down to table. Wounds on the nurse’s hands, however trifling, should always receive attention, and must, of course, never be neglected for a moment when she is in charge of cases such as plague, where the contagium is one which can be inoculated. A convenient and reliable covering for small surface wounds is a dressing made with friar’s balsam and collodion strengthened by a little cotton. A few threads of cotton wool, preferably absorbent cotton, are laid on the cut or abrasion, and friar’s balsam is painted over these with a camel’s-hair brush, care being taken not to displace the cotton. After a few minutes, when the balsam has dried, collodion is brushed over the whole. If this dressing is properly applied it may be safely trusted, and the hands may with ordinary care be washed without fear of detaching it. The dressing will last for several days, but in case of acccidents fresh collodion had better be brushed over it from time to time. Mention has been made of an antiseptic mouth- wash or gargle, as a prophylactic to be used by the attendants in cases in which infection is believed to enter by the mouth or air passages. The mouth- wash used, and apparently with good effect, by the men engaged in cleaning the Chinese quarters in Hong-Kong in 1894 when plague visited that colony, was one in which carbolic acid, spirit of camphor, and Kau de Cologne were combined. Boracic acid is sometimes employed as a mouth-wash, and a saturated solution—the proper strength to use—is easily and quickly prepared by adding the crystals to water at the temperature of the air, in such
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