Notes on nursing : what it is, and what it is not.

  • Nightingale, Florence, 1820-1910.
Date:
1860
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Notes on nursing : what it is, and what it is not. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material is part of the Elmer Belt Florence Nightingale collection. The original may be consulted at University of California Libraries.

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    mit all kinds of negligences and ignorances in per- forming it. ■Light. 5. A dark house is always an unhealthy house, al- ways an ill-aired house, always a dirty house. Want of light stops growth, and promotes scrofula, rickets, &c., among the children. People lose their health in a dark house, and if they get ill they cannot get well again in it. More will be said about this farther on. Three com- Three out of many negligences and ignorances in^managing in managing the health of houses generally, I will here houseT^ ^ mention as specimens—1. That the female head in charge of any building does not think it necessary to visit every hole and corner of it every day. How can she expect those who are under her to be more careful to maintain her house in a healthy condition than she who is in charge of it ?—2. That it is not considered essential to air, to sun, and to clean rooms while uninhabited ; which is simply ignoring the first elementary notion of sanitary things, and laying the ground ready for all kinds of dis- eases.—3. That the window, and one window, is con- sidered enough to air a room. Have you never observed that any room without a fire-place is always close? And, if you have a fire-place, would you cram it up not only with a chimney-board, but perhaps with a great wisp of brown paper, in the throat of the chimney—to prevent the soot from coming down, you say ? If your chimney is foul, sweep it; but don't expect that you can ever air a room with only one aperture; don't suppose that to shut up a room is the way to keep it clean. It is the best way to foul the room and all that is in it. Don't imagine that if you, who are in charge, don't look to all these things yourself, those under you will be more careful than