CHAPTER IV.

HYGIENIC TREATMENT OF THE SICK.

There are two essentials requisite to the successful treatment of the
sick: (1.) Medical skill; (2.) Good nursing. The former is necessary in
order that the condition of the patient be fully understood, and the
proper means be employed to effect his recovery. The latter is
essential, in order that all influences favoring the production and
development of disease may be removed, the tendencies to restoration be
promoted by every possible means, and the directions of the physician be
properly observed.

Success in the treatment of the sick requires good nursing. Without it,
the most skillful physicians fail to effect a cure; with it, the most
unqualified may succeed. If certain hygienic agencies are essential to
the maintenance of health, how much more necessary it is that they be
employed in sickness! If certain conditions cause disease, how great the
necessity is that such conditions be obviated and hygienic ones
substituted!

Notwithstanding the importance of good nursing, in the rural districts
it is frequently difficult to find a professional nurse, or, if one can
be obtained, it is often impossible for the invalid to procure such
services, on account of the expense which must necessarily be incurred.
Hence, this office usually devolves upon some relative who is considered
to be the best qualified for the position; or, as is often the case,
necessity demands that the patient be left to a change of nurses. A
woman is generally selected for this important position. Her soft hand
and soothing voice, her kindly, sympathetic, and provident nature,
together with her scrupulous cleanliness, render her man's equal, if not
his superior, in the capacity of nurse. There are circumstances,
however, in which the services of a man are indispensable; hence the
necessity that all should be qualified to care for the sick.

A nurse should be attentive to the requirements of physician and
patient, for she sustains an intimate relation to both. She should
observe the directions of the physician, and faithfully perform them.
She should note all the symptoms of the patient, and do everything in
her power to promote comfort and recovery. She should anticipate the
wishes, and not cause the patient to ask for everything which is
desired. So far as practicable, let the wishes be gratified. The senses
of the sick often become morbidly acute, and those things which in
health would pass