Part 3
This bed is a warm bed, owing to water being nearly an absolute non-conductor of heat from above downwards, and owing to its allowing no passage of cold air from below. From this last fact, however, less of the perspiration, whether sensible or insensible, will be carried off by the air than in a common bed, and unless the patient can leave the bed daily to let it be aired, it is necessary to lay an oiled silk or other water-proof cloth over the mattress, to prevent the perspiration from descending to be condensed on the cloth below; or to place a blanket below to be changed occasionally; or, finally, to lay under the mattress a layer of cork, cut into small pieces, and so connected as to leave passages between, for any desired degree of ventilation. This bed is in itself as dry as a bed can be, for the India-rubber cloth (of which bottles can be made) is quite impermeable to water, and the maker is now preparing cloth expressly for this purpose. Then, as Sir Humphry Davy recommended that his safety lamp should be double, some persons may prefer a double sheet, to obviate the possibility of accident. Unlike any other bed that ever was contrived, it allows the patient, when capable of only feeble efforts, to change his position, almost like a person swimming, and so to take a degree of exercise, affording the kind of relief which in constrained positions is obtained by occasional stretching, or which an invalid seeks by driving out in a soft-springed carriage. It exceedingly facilitates turning for the purpose of dressing wounds, for by raising one side of the mattress or depressing the other, or merely by the patient’s extending a limb to one side, he is gently rolled over, nearly as if he were simply suspended in water; and it is possible even to dress wounds, apply poultices, or place vessels under any part of the body, without moving the body at all; for there are some inches of yielding water under the body, and the elastic mattress may at any part be pushed down, leaving vacant space there, without the support being lessened for the other parts. Then, with all the advantages which other invalid beds possess, and with those which are entirely its own, it may yet be made so cheaply, that even in hospitals, where economy must prevail, it may at once be adopted for many of the bed-ridden. Mr. Earle, within a few days of seeing the first one, had others made for patients in St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, and has been as much pleased with the results of them as of the first. The bed has since been introduced into St. George’s Hospital by Mr. Keate, and elsewhere.--The author has now seen enough of the effects of this bed to make him feel it a duty at once to publish a notice of it. With it, evidently, the fatal termination called sloughing, now so common, of fevers, and other diseases, need never occur again. And not only will it prevent that termination, but by alleviating the distress through the earlier stages, it may prevent many cases from even reaching the degree of danger. Then it is peculiarly applicable to cases of fractured bones, and other surgical injuries; to palsies, diseases of the hip joint, and spine; and universally where persons are obliged to pass much time in bed. And in all classes of curvature of the spine, either actually existing or threatened, it affords a means of laying a patient in any desired position, and with any degree of pressure incessantly urging any part of the spine back to its place. If used without the mattress, it becomes a warm or a cold bath, not allowing the body however to be touched by the water; and in India, it might be made a cool bed for persons sick or sound, during the heats which there prevent sleep and endanger health. There are numerous other professional adaptations and modifications of it, which will readily occur to practitioners sufficiently versed in the department of natural philosophy (hydrostatics) to which it belongs. Before reflection a person might suppose a resemblance between it and an air-bed or pillow, calling this a water-bed or pillow; but the principles of the two are perfectly distinct or opposite. An air-pillow supports by the _tension of the surface_ which encloses the air, and is therefore like a hammock or the tight sacking under the straw mattress of a common bed, and really is a hard pillow; but in the hydrostatic bed there is no tense surface or web at all: the patient is floating upon the water, on which a loose sheet is lying, merely to keep the mattress dry, and every point of his body is supported by the water immediately beneath it. To recall the difference here described, and which is of great importance, the bed is better described by the appellation of _hydrostatic bed_ than of _water-bed_.
The author has given no exclusive right or privilege to any person to make this bed. He has hitherto employed the carpenter nearest to him, Mr. Smith, 253, Tottenham-court Road, at the back of Bedford Square, and the manufacturers of the water-proof cloth, Mackintosh and Co., 58, Charing-Cross; but any carpenter or upholsterer may learn to supply them, and he gives free permission to all.
The preceding paragraphs are intended as much to direct in the choice and use of common beds for the sick, as to announce and describe the hydrostatic bed for the cases where it may be required. At present the medical attendant often leaves whatever regards the bed to the judgment of friends or nurses; but evidently he who perceives clearly how much the course and events of a malady may depend on the patient’s being supported, so that no pain shall arise from local pressure, and as little weariness as possible from the constrained position, will be better able to use any bed to its greatest advantage, and where a choice of beds is allowed, to choose the best. There is a bed formed of spiral springs which diffuses the support more than any bed except the hydrostatic bed; and had professional men generally known it, it would have been more extensively used than it is, and would have received modifications of which it is susceptible for medical purposes. It has been long known, but chiefly as a mechanical curiosity or as an object of luxury,--but so little known, that a few years ago an English manufacturer took out a patent for it, believing it a novelty. It is now made by upholsterers generally, and the same principle is applied in the construction of sofas, chairs, and carriage cushions.
It is one of the many striking facts illustrative of the benefits attending the commercial intercourse of mankind, that India-rubber, or caoutchouc, for many years used only to rub out pencil-marks, has become an important article in the manufacture of cloth; and it is pleasing to think that probably one of its most extensive applications will be in the mitigation of human suffering.
[Illustration: Trees producing Caoutchouc.]
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Transcriber’s Notes
This file uses _underscores_ to indicate italic text. New original cover art included with this eBook is granted to the public domain. Itemized changes from the original text:
• p. 212: Replaced comma with period after phrase “the experiment would not succeed if the person lifted were placed upon a board.” • p. 212: Replaced comma with period after phrase “thin plates of brass of an elliptical form, exactly resembling each other.” • p. 212: Replaced “fo ding-doors” with “folding-doors” in phrase “The folding-doors remain shut, and the drawer is returned empty.” • p. 212: Added period after phrase “seen through an iron railing from Newgate-street.” • p. 215: Added period after phrase “because uniformly diffused, is not felt.”