It would be well, if in every house there were a large apartment which could be appropriated in case of sickness. The bed of an invalid should not stand in a remote corner of the room, but in a position convenient of access, and where a proper degree of light can be admitted. In times long past, it was customary to exclude the light as much as possible from a sick-room whatever might be the disease of the patient.

Thus many a sufferer was deprived of one of the most genial and health-giving of God's many gifts. A sick-room should be made cheerful as possible; and, in order to this, it should not be deeply shaded. Light is almost as necessary to health as pure air. One of the first duties of a nurse is to secure pure air for her patient. If she can do it in no other way, she should cover his head, and open the windows and doors for a few minutes several times a day, so as to bring a current of air through the room.

It seems scarcely necessary to say, that a nurse should be scrupulously neat in her person, and that she should keep clean every article used in the sick-chamber, and, as far as possible, observe order in the arrangement of things in the room. In severe cases of fever, clean bed-linen should be furnished every day; and in all cases of illness, the sheets, blankets, and mattresses should be aired every morning in another room, before open windows, the patient meantime lying upon a cot or couch. In sickness, the room should be kept quiet, and needless talking avoided. A very little conversation between friends or attendants at a late hour in the evening may give a nervous invalid a sleepless night. The senses of a. little child are more delicate than those of adults; and many, a sick baby suffers from the thoughtless sociability of those about him, even when too young to know how it is that he is annoyed.

The discomfort of a fever-patient who is too feeble to take a bath is much relieved by his being sponged with tepid water, care being taken, in passing from one part of the body to another, not to expose him to a current of air. The face and hands should be sponged with cold water many times a day. The craving for water to drink should be gratified.

In cases of local inflammation, soft cloths, folded so as to make several thicknesses, should be wrung in ice-water and applied: then changed often, as they will only aggravate the beat if they remain after they become warm. Not only is this beneficial in case of brain-fever, but for a severe sick-headache. To produce perspiration, in order to relieve a sore throat or oppression of the lungs, apply a cloth wrung in ice-water, and put closely over it a dry flannel. Friction should be used when the perspiration thus produced has subsided, else the secretions thrown out upon the skin will be again absorbed into the system. In cases of erysipelas, cloths should be wrung as directed above in cold water without ice, and changed almost as fast as they can be wrung out. The heat in that disease is so fiery, that the water in the wash-bowl needs to be changed very often. Uncooked Cranberries thoroughly bruised or ripe tomatoes are each a good application for the relief of erysipelas.