ould oppose such an arrangement
as a failure of duty on their part. There is, besides, even when a
professional nurse is ultimately called in, a period of doubt and
hesitation, while disease has not yet developed itself, when the patient
must be attended to; and, in these cases, some of the female servants of
the establishment must give their attendance in the sick-room. There
are, also, slight attacks of cold, influenza, and accidents in a
thousand forms, to which all are subject, where domestic nursing becomes
a necessity; where disease, though unattended with danger, is
nevertheless accompanied by the nervous irritation incident to illness,
and when all the attention of the domestic nurse becomes necessary.

2417. In the first stage of sickness, while doubt and a little
perplexity hang over the household as to the nature of the sickness,
there are some things about which no doubt can exist: the patient's room
must be kept in a perfectly pure state, and arrangements made for proper
attendance; for the first canon of nursing, according to Florence
Nightingale, its apostle, is to "keep the air the patient breathes as
pure as the external air, without chilling him." This can be done
without any preparation which might alarm the patient; with proper
windows, open fireplaces, and a supply of fuel, the room may be as fresh
as it is outside, and kept at a temperature suitable for the patient's
state.

2418. Windows, however, must be opened from above, and not from below,
and draughts avoided; cool air admitted beneath the patient's head
chills the lower strata and the floor. The careful nurse will keep the
door shut when the window is open; she will also take care that the
patient is not placed between the door and the open window, nor between
the open fireplace and the window. If confined to bed, she will see that
the bed is placed in a thoroughly ventilated part of the room, but out
of the current of air which is produced by the momentary opening of
doors, as well as out of the line of draught between the window and the
open chimney, and that the temperature of the room is kept about 64 deg..
Where it is necessary to admit air by the door, the windows should be
closed; but there are few circumstances in which good air can be
obtained through the chamber-door; through it, on the contrary, the
gases generated in the lower parts of the house are likely to be drawn
into the invalid chamber.

2419. These precautions taken, a