How to Keep Ice in the Sick-room.
For those who have an abundant supply of ice, this may not be a matter of much moment; but for poor people, who may rarely use ice except in sickness, and to whom the expense is not insignificant, the following hints from an English source may be useful: "Cut a piece of flannel about nine inches square, and secure it by a ligature round the mouth of an ordinary tumbler, so as to leave a cup-shaped depression of flannel within the tumbler to about half its depth. In the flannel cup so constructed, pieces of ice may be preserved many hours; all the longer if a piece of flannel from four to five inches square be used as a loose cover to the ice-cup. Cheap flannel, with comparatively open meshes, is preferable, as the water easily drains through it, and the ice is thus kept quite dry. When good flannel with close texture is employed, a small hole must be made in the bottom of the flannel cup; otherwise it holds the water and facilitates the melting of the ice, which is, nevertheless, preserved much longer than in the naked cup or tumbler. In a tumbler containing a flannel cup, made as above described, of cheap, open flannel, at 10d. (20 cents) a yard, it took ten hours and ten minutes to dissolve two ounces of ice, whereas in a naked cup, under the same conditions, all the ice was gone in less then three hours."