Spons' Household Manual / A treasury of domestic receipts and a guide for home management

by Unknown

The Room

The Room.—The rules which apply to dwelling rooms generally have a double importance in the case of the sickroom. The sanitation, ventilation, warming, and lighting, all demand extra care and attention. A southern aspect is preferable to any other; the room should be cheerful, spacious, and lofty, and subject to the invaluable effect of sunshine. It would be desirable for all houses, even of moderate size, to have some one corner suitable for a sickroom. If space admits of such a room being entirely isolated from the rest of the house, so much the better; but much may be done by securing two rooms opening into each other, with hot and cold water supply within easy reach, and a closet properly placed. When necessary, the room should be kept clean by dusting with a damp cloth, rubbing the floors in the same way.

Ordinarily, the chimney is the best ventilator, especially when the fire is burning, which increases the upward draught. Never stuff up chimneys: and except in very warm weather, always keep a fire in the sickroom. It is not always easy to maintain at the same time proper warmth and ventilation. But as a person is not liable to take cold when well covered up in bed, a little of the window may almost always be kept open, without fear of its doing harm, especially if a piece of fine gauze be gummed or tacked across the opening so as to break the force of the entering air. In ordinary sickness the best temperature is 62°-70° F. It should not be allowed to vary much, and as feeling is often deceptive, it is always advisable to keep a thermometer in the room.

For the removal of slops, the ordinary paraphernalia of the housemaid should be completely excluded from the sickroom, as both noisy and disgusting. All vessels when used, instead of being put under the bed, must be immediately removed and emptied outside, and brought back carefully rinsed, and, when necessary, deodorised with a little Condy’s fluid. Allow no confusion of medicine bottles, soiled glasses, spoons, and such matters about the room: those in immediate use should be kept arranged ready to hand; all others should be removed.

Even with the greatest care fires will burn down low, and it is necessary to have some means of restoration at hand. Few people know how valuable wine corks are for this purpose; they should always be saved, and a few kept in a corner of the coal basket. Orange and lemon peel likewise, when well dried, make capital fire revivers; and rather than that the fire in a sickroom should be allowed to go out, use a lump of white sugar or a sprinkling of brown, which will create in a moment a bright flame and revive the dying embers. Employ a pointed hard wooden stick instead of a poker; it makes so much less noise. Let a basket take the place of the coal-scuttle, and let its contents consist of fair-sized lumps, about as big as a French roll; a housemaid’s glove should be at hand to put these on with. This is the provision for the day. For the night small paper bags, such as fruiterers use, should be filled with about 1 lb. of small coal. This does not burn so fast or make so much flame as the lumps, whilst the feeding of the fire by these means divests the process of noise.

As little furniture as possible should encumber the room. No foot-stools, boxes, or baskets should be in the way, to be tripped over; no knick-knacks crowded on tables or mantelpieces to harbour dust, take up room, or tumble down with a crash. Various forms of sickroom furniture, adapted for confirmed invalids and serious surgical cases, are made by Alfred Carter, 97 Holborn Viaduct, and by Robinson and Sons, Ilkley, Yorkshire, whose catalogues will be worth getting.

Of carpets, the less the better; but if any are used, mere strips or rugs are best, as they are easily taken up and shaken, or cleaned. Curtains should be got rid of, especially if of woollen or stuff; cotton and linen should be used for any sofa or chair coverings.

Windows should be made to open easily from both top and bottom, whilst some contrivance is necessary to prevent any rattling noise from either window-frames or outer blinds. Venetian blinds, imperfect at the best, are quite unsuitable for a sickroom, being always noisy, and sure to admit alternate rays of light. Nothing wakes many people so quickly as light—a mere crevice unprotected is often enough. In the evening, be sure that the light of the lamp or candle does not fall in the patient’s eyes; there is nothing more distressing. Gas in a sick room is not healthy; a Queen’s reading-lamp, with a green shade, is pleasant for a stationary light, and a candle for moving about.

Real quiet is of paramount importance. Even “noiseless” crockery can now be obtained. The principle adopted is that of noiseless tyres to wheels, made of rubber, such tyres being fitted to the bottoms of the jugs, basins, &c.

One thing that would give great pleasure to many a bedridden sufferer is a looking-glass—sometimes two may, from the position of the bed, be necessary—fixed so as to reflect all the passers-by, or to show a patch of bright flower garden, bringing some of the outside life into the sickroom. Ferns growing beneath a bell glass, where they need no care or attention after they are once planted, may also be introduced. Plants in pots and cut flowers will occur to every one; it only remains to observe that growing plants, for their own sake as well as for the patient, should be moved out of the room at night, and that cut flowers from the side of a fever patient must be burnt in the room when they are dead, and not carried into any other part of the house.