BED.—In order to refresh both body and mind, man spends about one third of his life in sleeping. In order to fulfil the indications demanded of it, particular attention should be paid to the bed. It must be comfortable in order to furnish complete rest during sleep. The non-activity of the muscles during sleep causes the body to generate less heat than during the Nraking hours, and the bed-clothes should therefore contribute a greater degree of warmth than the clothing. A bed should not be too soft, as this is conducive to malposition of the body, and a consequent feeling of stiffness on awakening. Nor should it be too warm, as this interferes with evaporation and produces overheating of the body, and perspiration. The resting place of a healthy individual should consist of a mattress made of horse hair, or a suitable bag stuffed with clean straw. The head should rest low on a pillow stuffed with horsehair, or with tightly packed feathers. As covering, a single blanket will suffice for the summer ; a double blanket of wool, or a quilt, for the winter. Feather-beds are required by a healthy adult only during extremely cold weather in unheated rooms ; they may, however, be used for children or old people during other times of the year, but should never be too thick.
On retiring, all clothes worn during the day should be removed, and a suitable night garment put on. The clothes should be hung up, preferably outside of the sleeping-chamber, so that they may be thoroughly aired. The head should remain outside of the covers during sleep, so that the fresh air of the room and not the emanations from the body are inhaled. Lying on the side while sleeping is preferable to lying on the back. Bed-curtains and draperies should be discarded, as they interfere with the free circulation of air. Iron bedsteads with spiral springs and a divided mattress are to be preferred to a wooden bedstead with its clumsy spring mattress, which is difficult to clean, and which also affords numerous hiding-places for vermin. The bed must rest on legs, so that sufficient space is provided beneath it for the air to reach every part. The bed should be so placed that it is not exposed to draughts, and it should be kept away from windows and stoves. Neither should it be situated next to a damp wall. Every morning the bed clothes should be thoroughly shaken and aired at an open window, and as often as possible they should he brought into the open air and exposed to the sun. Sheets and other bed-linen should be frequently changed. With regard to suggestions as to choice, ventilation, and heating arrangements for the bed-chamber, see DWELLING-PLACES.
The bed of the sick should stand, if possible, in the middle of the room, accessible from both sides ; not too near a heated stove, and guarded against draughts, but without a canopy. The bottom of the bed, usually a spring mattress, must he even, and uniformly elastic. Castors under the feet of the bed are very useful. The mattress resting upon the springs had best consist of three parts ; its most suitable stuffing is horsehair, wool, sea weed, etc. The middle part, \\Ilk]] is most exposed to the pressure of the body, should be thicker than the sides ; therefore it should have a slightly convex (curved) surface Ivithout lying itneven (no grooves). For patients who are not cleanly, it is advisable to replace the middle part of the mattress by a sack stuffed with chopped straw. The urine trickles through the latter upon a trough placed under the mattress, and from there into a chamber (see Fig. 92). Special beds %%it') urinals are constructed, and may he used if the expense can be borne.
The mattress should be covered with a linen sheet, \VIliCh must always be scrupulously clean, free from all deposits such as crumbs of food, and (Zrawn tight and smooth.
The latter object is readily accomplished if each side of the sheet is grasped by someone, and drawn tight.
If a patient is restless, fasten the sheet to the mattress with safety-pins.
Pillows stuffed with feathers must be firmly and well tilled, so that the head.does not sink in too much. Large bolsters may be used as supports for the head. The coverings of the bed must not hindei evaporation ; those stuffed with feathers are very impractical in comparison with woollen or wadded coverlets.
BED-SORES.-1:lcers, generally over the bony prominences of the pelvis in the buttock region. and usually due to long-continue& pressure, as from lying on the back for protracted intervals. They may result from-disease of the spinal cord ; and they may occur also in the region of the shoulder blades and the heels. When patients are confined to bed for several weeks as in protracted fevers like typhoid, or in some cases of insanity, these bed sores are apt to develop unless great cleanliness is insisted upon. To ob viate their onset the bed should be carefully prepared, air cushions or water cushions should he provided, the patient frequently turned, and the skin cared for by alcoholic washes and antiseptic powders, formulas for which can be obtained from the physician in attendance.