Written for the 
Industrial Exhibit 
Phila., 1906. 
THE 
Sick Room The sick-room should be furnished 
as simply as possible. An iron bed,i 
a hair mattress, several wooden 
chairs, one or two small tables and a 
wash-stand should constitute the en-| 
tire furnishings. If the disease is a 
protracted one and a place for clothes 
and special articles is required there 
is no objection to a chiffonier. There 
should be no carpet on the floor or' 
curtains at the windows. Shades are 
permissible. The room should be as 
open to the sunlight as possible in 
order to keep up constant disinfec-j 
tion. 
The patient's eating utensils 
(knives, forks, spoons, cups, saucers, 
plates and glasses) should be boiled after use. Food of any kind left over 
should be burned; it must not be 
given to others or even to the domes- 
tic animals, the cow, dog, pig or cat. 
The patient's soiled clothes should 
be handled as little as possible. When 
a change of clothes, sheets, pillow- 
cases, wearing apparel takes place, 
the soiled pieces should be rolled up 
in a clean sheet and boiled for three 
hours without unrolling. They may 
then be washed in the usual manner. 
If the patient expectorates, no mat- 
ter how little, he should use a paste- 
board sputum cup or a china cup con- ■ 
taining a disinfectant. The best dis- 
infectant we have for sputum is lye, 
(ordinary household lye). If the patient is walking about the 
house, every room that he occupies 
should be as open as possible. He 
should not be allowed to make the 
dining-room or the kitchen his living- 
room. 
Nobody should leave the patient's 
room without washing the hands im- 
mediately. Children should not be 
allowed in the sick-room. 
These rules apply to any sickness. 
The Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention 
of Tuberculosis, 1529 Spruce St., Philadelphia. I