the peculiar close foetid smell, so
apt to be produced among surgical cases, especially where there is great
suppuration and discharge, she may see a vigorous patient in the prime
of life gradually sink and die where, according to all human
probability, he ought to have recovered. The surgical nurse must be ever
on the watch, ever on her guard, against want of cleanliness, foul air,
want of light, and of warmth.

Nevertheless let no one think that because _sanitary_ nursing is the
subject of these notes, therefore, what may be called the handicraft of
nursing is to be undervalued. A patient may be left to bleed to death in
a sanitary palace. Another who cannot move himself may die of bed-sores,
because the nurse does not know how to change and clean him, while he
has every requisite of air, light, and quiet. But nursing, as a
handicraft, has not been treated of here for three reasons: 1. that
these notes do not pretend to be a manual for nursing, any more than for
cooking for the sick; 2. that the writer, who has herself seen more of
what may be called surgical nursing, i.e., practical manual nursing,
than, perhaps, any one in Europe, honestly believes that it is
impossible to learn it from any book, and that it can only be thoroughly
learnt in the wards of a hospital; and she also honestly believes that
the perfection of surgical nursing may be seen practised by the
old-fashioned "Sister" of a London hospital, as it can be seen nowhere
else in Europe. 3. While thousands die of foul air, &c., who have this
surgical nursing to perfection, the converse is comparatively rare.

[Sidenote: Children: their greater susceptibility to the same things.]

To revert to children. They are much more susceptible than grown people
to all noxious influences. They are affected by the same things, but
much more quickly and seriously, viz., by want of fresh air, of proper
warmth, want of cleanliness in house, clothes, bedding, or body, by
startling noises, improper food, or want of punctuality, by dulness and
by want of light, by too much or too little covering in bed, or when up,
by want of the spirit of management generally in those in charge of
them. One can, therefore, only press the importance, as being yet
greater in the case of children, greatest in the case of sick children,
of attending to these things.

That which, however, above all, is known to injure children seriously is
foul air, and most seriously at night. Keeping the