iew from the bed.
Most patients like to look out of the window; children and old people
enjoy it particularly.

If the patient shows signs of fatigue, she should go back to bed even
before the appointed time. To help her back to bed, reverse the process
of helping her out. A footstool may be needed if the bed is high, or
two people to lift her if she is weak or heavy. When a patient is in bed
no one should ever sit on the bed, lean against it, use it as a table
for folding linen, making pads, etc., take hold of the bed posts in
passing, or touch the bed unnecessarily in any way.

The best time for visitors is the last of the morning or the early
afternoon. A judicious visitor may do an immense amount of good,
especially to a chronic patient; indeed, she may be the only ray of
light in a dark day. Subjects of conversation should be pleasant, but
not too stimulating or exciting. The visitor should be prepared to carry
the burden of the conversation, to drop topics skillfully that seem to
involve fatigue or excitement, and either to go or to stop talking if
the patient seems tired. Visitors should remember to talk naturally and
cheerfully on ordinary topics, and to avoid excessive sympathy and
labored attempts to cheer the patient. They should also remember that
few patients bear well even the mildest forms of teasing. The patient's
room is not the place to discuss personal or family troubles; yet it is
only too often chosen for such purposes, probably because the complainer
knows that in it an audience is always to be found.

Visitors not belonging to the family should not be present in the
sick-room during treatment of any kind, unless their help is required;
neither, as a rule, should they stay during the patient's meals. A
member of the family may stay with advantage if the patient tires of
eating alone, but casual visitors almost invariably offend by undue
urging if the patient's appetite is poor, or by facetious remarks if it
is good.

Ordinarily only one visitor should be admitted at a time, since a weak
patient may be tired merely by looking from one to another. If it is
desirable to limit the call, the attendant should tell the visitor
beforehand how long to stay, or arrange a signal for the visit to end.
To announce baldly in the sick-room that the patient is tired and the
visitor must go, will only elicit aggrieved protests from both. In
illness lasting only a day or two all visitors should be discouraged;