[Sidenote:  Chamber utensils without lids.]

The use of any chamber utensil without a lid[5] should be utterly abolished, whether among sick or well.  You can easily convince yourself of the necessity of this absolute rule, by taking one with a lid, and examining the under side of that lid.  It will be found always covered, whenever the utensil is not empty, by condensed offensive moisture.  Where does that go, when there is no lid?

Earthenware, or if there is any wood, highly polished and varnished wood, are the only materials fit for patients’ utensils.  The very lid of the old abominable close-stool is enough to breed a pestilence.  It becomes saturated with offensive matter, which scouring is only wanted to bring out.  I prefer an earthenware lid as being always cleaner.  But there are various good new-fashioned arrangements.

[Sidenote:  Abolish slop-pails.]

A slop pail should never be brought into a sick room.  It should be a rule invariable, rather more important in the private house than elsewhere, that the utensil should be carried directly to the water-closet, emptied there, rinsed there, and brought back.  There should always be water and a cock in every water-closet for rinsing.  But even if there is not, you must carry water there to rinse with.  I have actually seen, in the private sick room, the utensils emptied into the foot-pan, and put back unrinsed under the bed.  I can hardly say which is most abominable, whether to do this or to rinse the utensil in the sick room.  In the best hospitals it is now a rule that no slop-pail shall ever be brought into the wards, but that the utensils, shall be carried direct to be emptied and rinsed at the proper place.  I would it were so in the private house.

[Sidenote:  Fumigations.]

Let no one ever depend upon fumigations, “disinfectants,” and the like, for purifying the air.  The offensive thing, not its smell, must be removed.  A celebrated medical lecturer began one day, “Fumigations, gentlemen, are of essential importance.  They make such an abominable smell that they compel you to open the window.”  I wish all the disinfecting fluids invented made such an “abominable smell” that they forced you to admit fresh air.  That would be a useful invention.

FOOTNOTES: 

[1] [Sidenote:  Why are uninhabited rooms shut up?]

The common idea as to uninhabited rooms is, that they may safely be left with doors, windows, shutters, and chimney-board, all closed—­ hermetically sealed if possible—­to keep out the dust, it is said; and that no harm will happen if the room is but opened a short hour before the inmates are put in.  I have often been asked the question for uninhabited rooms.—­But when ought the windows to be opened?  The answer is—­When ought they to be shut?