Page:Willich, A. F. M. - The Domestic Encyclopædia (Vol. 1, 1802).djvu/243

Rh the upper clothes, to exclude cold; let down the under-frame C; replace the blanket, and put on the clean sheet; draw away the other, and again wind up the frame to the fracture-frame, and unhook it at the four corners. Thus resting on the under frame, the patient safely descends to the comforts of a new-made bed and clean linen.

As in the early stages of consumptive, or asthmatic disorders, it is material to avoid the heat of a feather-bed, particularly if the patient be liable to night-sweats, and if he be abie to rise and have the linen changed, the fracture-frame may not be necessary: in this case, the lower frame may be wound a little above the feather-bed; at the top of the frame C, there is a sleeping-desk, E, by which the head and shoulders may be raised at pleasure, by fixing the two hooks at the end of the frame to the two rings R,R, and freeing those at the feet: after which, by the use of the wynch, it may be lowered or raised at pleasure.

The whole apparatus may be attached to any four-post bedstead by a common carpenter.

It is needless to expatiate upon the utility of such a bedstead, to families at a distance from the metropolis: and as we have no personal acquaintance with this ingenious artisan, we cannot be suspected of partiality: indeed, the first account of his invention, together with a plate, was communicated to us by means of a foreign journal, lately imported.

Lastly, it deserves to be noticed, that the prevailing custom of providing the bedsteads of children with curtains, is liable to strong and serious objections: 1. Because they prevent a free access of air for the renewal of that mass which has been rendered unfit for respiration; 2. They endanger the lives of infants by candle-light, from which fatal accidents have frequently happened; and 3. They are pernicious receptacles for the finest particles of dust, which, as we have already observed (See ), are inhaled by the person confined within such curtains, on the least motion of the bedstead: and thence, perhaps, many young and blooming innocents may date the first period of their consumptive attack. We do not, however, mean to insinuate, that curtains ought to be universally abandoned, as there may occur a variety of instances, in which the laws of propriety and decorum, might render them useful and necessary.  BED-TIME, or that period of the evening or night, when we retire to enjoy the necessary repose.

Although it would be difficult, in the present irregular state of society, to lay down rules for the proper time of resorting to that place which suspends and makes us forget our daily troubles and cares; yet, when we consider the subject, with regard to its influence, as well on the health as the moral character of man, it is deserving of the most serious discussion. Much, indeed, depends on the arrangement of the day, and the different pursuits of the individual. Those persons who spend the greater part of their time in useful labour, and have sufficient muscular exercise, would better consult their health, by retiring to repose at least two or three hours before midnight; which, according to the oldest and most accurate observers, are nearly as refreshing Rh