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Classic
Cook Books
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page 411
Bathing should always be done under the advice of a physician, but soap and
water are great restoratives. In most cases, washing and properly drying the
skin gives great relief. Care should be taken, while sponging and cleansing, not
to expose too great a surface at a time, so as to check perspiration. The
physician will regulate the temperature. Sometimes a little vinegar, whisky, or
alcohol added to the water, makes the bath more refreshing, and bay-rum for the
face, neck, and hands is often acceptable. Whenever the bath is followed by a
sense of oppression, it has done harm. Its effect should be comfort and relief.
Chamber utensils should be emptied and thoroughly cleansed immediately after
using, and in no case allowed to remain standing in the sick-room. Slop-pails,
into which nothing should be allowed to go except the waste water from the
wash-stand, must be emptied and cleansed thoroughly at least twice a day.
Patients are often killed by kindness. A spoonful of improper food, or the
indulgence of some whim, may prove fatal. A physician's directions should always
be observed with the strictest fidelity. Medicines and things which will be
wanted during the night should all be prepared before the patient grows sleepy.
Every thing should be done quickly but quietly, and with precision. In talking,
sit where the patient can see you without turning his head. Never ask questions
when he is doing any thing, and never lean or sit upon the bed. Sick persons
generally prefer to be told any thing rather than to have it read to them. A
change in the ornaments of the room is a great relief, and the sick especially
enjoy bright and beautiful things. Flowers which do not have a pungent odor are
always a great delight.
In convalescence great care is necessary, and the physician's directions should
be implicitly obeyed, especially in regard to diet; a failure in obedience often
brings on a fatal relapse. A little food at a time and often repeated, is the
general rule for the sick. A table-spoonful of beef-tea, every half hour, will
be digested, when a cupful every three or four hours will be rejected. (In
giving a drink or liquid of any kind a moustache-cup will be found a great
convenience). The sick can rarely take solid food before eleven in the morning,
and a spoonful of beef-tea, or whatever stimulant the physician has ordered,
given every hour or two, relieves exhaustion. Brandy, whisky, or other alcoholic
stimulants, however, should never be ordered in cases where there is a
hereditary tendency to use them, or where they have been used as a beverage, or
where the associations of the patient in the future would be likely to make an
acquired taste for them a temptation. In most cases substitutes may readily be
found. Untouched food should never be left at the bed-side. Every meal should be
a surprise, and the patient should be left alone while eating. Food for the sick
must be of the best quality, and neatly and delicately prepared. The cook should
do half the
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