r everything, and everything in its place.' A
table covered with a cloth so that things may be taken up and put down
noiselessly, and set apart for the medicine, the drink, the nourishment,
cups, glasses, spoons, or whatever else the patient is in frequent need
of; with a _wooden_ bowl and water for rinsing cups and glasses in, and
a cloth or two for wiping them, will save much trouble and noise, and
the loud whispers of the attendants to each other, 'Where is the sugar?
where is the arrowroot? where did you put down the medicine?' of which
we hear so much in the sick-room, so much especially in the sick-room of
the child, who is unable to tell how extremely all this disturbs him.

One more caution still remains for me to give. Do not talk to the
doctor in the child's room, do not relate bad symptoms, do not express
your fears, nor ask the doctor his opinion in the child's hearing. The
child often understands much more than you would imagine, misunderstands
still more; and over and over again I have known the thoughtless
utterance of the mother, nurse, or doctor depress a child's spirits and
seriously retard his recovery.

It is consoling to bear in mind that how grave soever a child's illness
may be, the power of repair is greater in early life than in adult age,
that with few exceptions the probability of recovery is greater in the
child than it would be from the same disease in the grown person. This
too is due not simply to the activity of the reparative powers in early
life, but also in great measure to the mental and moral characteristics
of childhood.

To make the sick child happy, in order that he may get well, is the
unwritten lesson which they who have best learnt, know best how to nurse
sick children. It may seem strange, that from so high a purpose I should
at once come down to so commonplace a detail as to insist on the
importance, even on this account, of keeping the sick child in bed.

At the onset of every illness of which the nature is not obvious, during
the course of any illness in which the chest is affected, or in which
the temperature is higher than natural, bed is the best and happiest
place for the child. In it repose is most complete, far more complete
than after early babyhood it can be in the nurse's or mother's lap, and
free from the great objection of the increased heat from being in
contact with another person's body. Nothing is more painful than to
witness the little child, sick and fev