Sick nursing / by H. Drinkwater.

  • Drinkwater, H. (Harry), 1855-1925
Date:
1907
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Sick nursing / by H. Drinkwater. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Furniture.—Remove superfluous things, but do not make the room look bare. In infectious cases the room must only contain necessaries. The carpet must be taken up, a small I strip being left at the side of the bed and another by the hearth. No drapery, such as bed hangings, heavy curtains, rugs or toilet covers, must be left. Chests of drawers should be removed. Nothing that will spoil when being disinfected should be left in the room. i A Fire should be lighted as soon as the room is selected and the temperature maintained at about 6o° (not above 65° nor below 55°). This must be observed by means of a thermometer I placed near the patient’s head and on the same level. It will show the temperature of the air that the patient breathes, which may be several degrees warmer or cooler than the air of other parts of the room. A thermometer in a case to hang on the wall costs one shilling. It consists of a hollow glass ! tube closed at each end. The lower end is ex- ; panded into a “bulb.” The rest is called the I “stem,” and has a uniform thickness throughout its whole length (Fig. 2). The bulb contains i quicksilver (mercury), a substance very sensitive ! to variations in temperature. It expands and therefore rises in the tube as the temperature or heat of the air rises and sinks down when the air The thermometer is “read” by noticing exactly the point to v/hich the upper limit of the mercury reaches. The stem is marked in “degrees,” or the degrees may be marked on the metal or wooden frame to which the glass is fixed. In figure 2 the mercury is shown standing at 66 degrees —generally written thus, 66°, the little circle meaning
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