Notes on Nursing: What It Is, and What It Is Not

Again, the fire fills the room with coal-dust. [Sidenote: Dirty air from the carpet.] 3. Dirty air coming from the carpet. Above all, take care of the carpets, that the animal dirt left there by the feet of visitors does not stay there. Floors, unless the grain is filled up and polished, are just as bad. The smell from the floor of a school-room or ward, when any moisture brings out the organic matter by which it is saturated, might alone be enough to warn us of the mischief that is going on. [Sidenote: Remedies.] The outer air, then, can only be kept clean by sanitary improvements, and by consuming smoke. The expense in soap, which this single improvement would save, is quite incalculable. The inside air can only be kept clean by excessive care in the ways mentioned above--to rid the walls, carpets, furniture, ledges, &c., of the organic matter and dust--dust consisting greatly of this organic matter--with which they become saturated, and which is what really makes the room musty. Without cleanliness, you cannot have all the effect of ventilation; without ventilation, you can have no thorough cleanliness. Very few people, be they of what class they may, have any idea of the exquisite cleanliness required in the sick-room. For much of what I have said applies less to the hospital than to the private sick-room. The smoky chimney, the dusty furniture, the utensils emptied but once a day, often keep the air of the sick constantly dirty in the best private houses.