Only prolonged and careful training, such as good hospital training-schools afford, can furnish the skill and judgment required in nursing persons who are seriously ill. Upon the trained nurse the modern practice of medicine makes great and ever-increasing demands: a nurse must perform complicated duties, meet critical situations, and carry out a wide variety of measures based on scientific principles which she must understand. Good will and sympathy are no longer enough; amateur nursing, even when performed with the best intentions, may involve grave dangers for those who are seriously ill. On the other hand, although it is true that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, it is no less true that total ignorance may be more dangerous still. For instance, in cases of incipient, slight, or chronic illness, and in certain emergencies a little knowledge may be safer far than no knowledge at all; and no one, surely, should be ignorant of the principles of hygiene. The American Red Cross, recognizing the part that women can and should play in preventing sickness and in building up the health and vigor of the nation, has added to its larger patriotic services this elementary course of instruction in hygiene and home care of the sick. The lessons are not intended to take the place of a nurse's training, and procedures requiring technical skill are necessarily omitted. The object of the book is to supply a little knowledge of sickness, which though limited may yet be safe. The book is also designed to set forth some general laws of health; to make possible earlier recognition of symptoms; to teach greater care in guarding against communicable disease; and to describe some elementary methods of caring for the sick, which, however simple, are essential to comfort, and sometimes indeed to ultimate recovery. FOR FURTHER READING A History of Nursing--Dock and Nutting, Volume I. The Life of Florence Nightingale--Cook. The Life of Pasteur--Vallery-Radot. The House on Henry Street--Wald. Public Health Nursing--Gardner, Part I, Chapters I-III. Origin and Growth of the Healing Art--Berdoe. Medical History from the Earliest Times--Withington. Under the Red Cross Flag--Boardman. Report on National Vitality--Fisher, (Bulletin 30 of the Committee of One Hundred on National Health. Government Printing Office, Washington). CHAPTER I CAUSES AND PREVENTION OF SICKNESS Diseases of two kinds have long been recognized: first, those transmitted directly or indirectly from person to person, like smallpox, measles, and typhoid fever; and second, diseases like heart disease and apoplexy, which are not so transmitted. These two classes are popularly called "catching" and "not catching;" the former are the infectious or communicable diseases, and the latter the non-infectious or non-communicable. The term contagious, formerly applied to diseases supposed to be spread only by direct contact, is no longer an accurate or useful term.