Outdoor Life Indoors

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Mar 22, 1906

Outdoor Life Indoors

Before the National Association for the Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis, Dr. S. A. Knopf recently read a paper, which the Medical Record has since published, on various devices for enabling consumptives to sleep in the open air without inconvenient exposure. Quoting Dr. Trudeau, of the Saranac Sanitarium:—

“Ideal sleeping-out places of this kind are built out from a second-story room, and on them the comparatively well patient can sleep at night, or the bedridden invalid may spend the entire time out of doors and in close proximity to family and friends. The bed can be moved out at will on this little structure, and the patient can step at once into a room heated when necessary, to bathe or dress at any time, or to get warm if chilled.

“These second-story sleeping-out verandas can be built at comparatively small cost, and attached to almost any country house, and the consumptive who for any reason can not leave home can do much to arrest and cure the disease by equipping his house with such an out-of-door sleeping place, which will enable him to live at rest out of doors the year around; for in winter one step will take him into a warm room, where he can bathe and dress in comfort.

“The window of an ordinary second-story room is cut down to the floor, and replaced by a door; the floor of the little sleeping-out porch is supported by wooden brackets attached to the sides of the house; the two ends are boarded up with thin boards, with or without glass casings, supplied with dark shades; an overhanging shingle roof completes the structure, and by its overhang prevents the rain from beating in directly on the patient. An awning is a great additional comfort against sun and rain.

“When the invalid has selected an ordinary veranda for a sleeping-out place, his bed should be placed in a corner, so that he is sheltered from the wind on two sides, at least, and far enough back to prevent the rain from beating on the bed. One end of the veranda can thus, with a bed, a rug, a table, and a chair, be turned into a sort of open-air room, where the patient can spend not only the nights, but most of the days, as well. A slender-bowed switch will do to attach the often indispensable mosquito-net, or the entire end of the veranda can be screened off for this purpose.”

An ingenious device for enabling a patient to sleep in the open air in winter without leaving his room, and without annoying other persons by opening windows, has been invented by Dr. Knopf, who calls it a “window-tent.” He says:—

“This window-tent is an awning which, instead of being placed outside of the window, is attached to the inside of the room. It is so constructed that air from the room can not enter nor mix with the air in the tent. The patient lying on the bed, which is placed parallel

with the window, has his head and shoulders resting in the tent. . . . The ventilation is as nearly perfect as can be produced with so cheap a device. . . .

“The frame of the tent does not quite fill the lower half of the window; a space of about three inches is left for the escape of the warm air in the room. By lowering the window, this space can be reduced to one inch or less, according to need. On extremely cold and windy nights there need not be left any open space at all above the window-frame. The patient’s breath will rise to the top of the tent, and the form of the tent aids in the ventilation. The awning is made of stout duck and is water-proof.

“The patient enters the tent through a flap which can be made either on the right or on the left side of the tent. The lower edges of the canvas that come at the head and side of the bed are long enough to be tucked well under the mattress to exclude the air from the room and protect the patient from draft. The flap is so constructed as to admit of easy access by the patient. . . .

“A piece of transparent celluloid is placed in the middle portion of the tent to serve as an observation window for the nurse or members of the family to watch the patient if this is necessary. It also serves to make the patient feel less outdoors and more in contact with his family. He can, if he desires, see what is going on in the room.”—N. Y. Christian Advocate.