6. An ironing-board or the leaf of an extension table, supported by two chairs, makes a good table for instruments or solution basins.
7. An ordinary clothes-boiler, one-third filled with water, can be used as a sterilizer, the instruments rolled in gauze, and the brushes and orange sticks (for the doctor’s hands) being immersed therein. The necessary dressings, towels, sheets, fountain syringe, etc., are sterilized by hanging them in a hammock or sling hung from the handles of the boiler. A kitchen fork, lengthened by securely fastening to it an iron spoon, makes a convenient utensil with which to remove the articles from the boiler.
8. An ordinary sheet folded over at the top makes an excellent gown for the operator, if the ends be carefully taken up under the arms, crossed in the back, and used as sleeves for the shoulders and upper part of the arm, the middle of the upper hem of the sheet being pinned to the collar in front.
9. Water boiled in the clothes-boiler or tea-kettles can be quickly cooled by placing pitchers of it, covered with sterile towels or cloths, in a dish-pan or foot-tub of cracked ice.
10. A kettle of water kept boiling during the operation is a great convenience.
11. Salt solution filtered into household preserving jars can be sterilized in the wash-boiler with the other articles.
12. A stretcher can be improvised by slipping two window-poles or broom-handles into the folds of a sheet folded the proper size and securely fastened with safety-pins.
13. The Trendelenburg position can be secured by using an ordinary kitchen chair comfortably padded with a rubber-covered pillow and sheet, the back of the chair being placed under the patient.
14. The patient can be put in the lithotomy position by placing under the knees a padded walking-stick, to the ends of which is fastened a sheet folded diagonally, and passed under the shoulders.