during the day, to turn it inside out, and to hang it over the footboard of the bed. Under ordinary conditions the sheets should be changed every week. When it is remembered that on an average a third of a human being’s existence may be said to be passed in bed, the importance of his dormitory being kept scrupulously clean will be self evident. Every bedroom should therefore be well swept out each day, and the floor diligently scrubbed once a week. With the exception of a small strip beside the bed, the room should contain no carpet; a piece of New Zealand matting, being less able to retain dust, is preferable to carpeting. The door and windows of the bed-chamber should be kept more or less open during the day, so as to ensure a thorough draught of air through the room, and all slops and contents of chamber utensils should be immediately removed. No plants should be allowed in the bedroom.
There is no better form of mattress than one made of horsehair, both for children and adults. The pillows should also be made of the same material. Both pillows and mattress should be taken to pieces once a year, and their contents well ventilated by exposure to the air. When a child is ricketty, weak in the neck, inclined to stoop, or at all crooked, a pillow is best dispensed with. Cotton sheets have two advantages over linen ones—they are more absorbent, and feel less cold. In cases of sickness the comfortable construction of the patient’s bed, as well as the adoption of such means as shall ensure as much as possible its efficient ventilation, are matters of primary import. Hence because it permits of a more thorough circulation of air than any other kind, the horsehair mattress calls even more imperatively for adoption than in health. It may be placed upon the feather or wool bed, and should it be found too rough, or causing any discomfort, one or two blankets may be placed over it. The straw palliass should at the same time be removed. Both sheets and pillow cases should be frequently changed, more especially in fevers. If the patient perspire very profusely, fresh sheets and pillow cases should be supplied every twenty-four hours. If soiled by evacuation of any kind, it is most important that they should be changed at once, and so with the night dress. In all cases of eruptive and other fevers, and contagious diseases, all articles of wearing apparel (underclothing, as well as sheets, pillow cases, handkerchiefs, &c.) should when removed be placed in a vessel and covered with water.
In the articles on “air” and “vitiated air” the evil effects of ill-ventilated dormitories have been adverted to. Every bedroom should if possible contain an enclosed fireplace having free access to the chimney. Failing this a series of little holes about the size of a shilling should be bored in the lower part of the door, and the upper sash of the window should be opened to the extent of two or three inches.
[On the connection of BEDS and BEDDING with comfort and health, see Cotton, Damp, Feathers, Linen, Sleep, Ventilation, Vermin, &c.; also below.]
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