Electric lighting is the best for the nursery. If this is not a part of the equipment of the house, neither gas nor an oil lamp should be allowed to burn in the room at night; a candle or wax night light should be at hand. These can be bought at any house-furnishing store. It is very important that the nursery should be fitted with screens to keep out flies and mosquitoes. Mosquitoes carry malaria, and the foot of a fly brings germs from the street, garbage and trash piles far beyond the limits of the most sanitary nursery. The nursery should furnish the baby’s first protection from contagious diseases. It must be a veritable haven of safety. Therefore, no household work of any kind should be done in the room, such as washing or drying the baby’s clothes. The floors and the furniture should be wiped daily with damp cloths. A dry cloth or feather duster should never be used to scatter dust around the room. Very important are the bath equipment, fully described in Chapter VIII, “Cleanliness and Health,” and the baby’s toilet basket. The latter is most sanitary when made of wicker, plain or enameled, and fitted with celluloid or ivorine boxes. Swiss lining, with lace-trimmed pockets and bows, soon soils and catches dust and germs. The equipment of the nursery should include a crib of enameled iron, a low table, a screen, a closet or chest for the baby’s clothing and supplies, a small clothes-rack, a pair of scales, and a low chair—a rocker without arms if the mother prefers it. If these are all painted white, they give the room a very sanitary appearance. The crib should be supplied with springs, mattress—preferably of hair—a piece of India-rubber sheeting, and several cotton pads which can be washed, half a dozen cotton sheets, a pair of light woolen blankets—woven especially for cribs, or made from old blankets on hand, carefully washed and bound, or wide flannel by the yard finished with binding ribbon. The quilt should be of eider-down or a light-weight cotton-batting, covered with silk or silkaline. If the bed clothing is heavy, the baby will perspire and take cold more easily. A small hair pillow is better than feathers, and the pillow-slip should not be embroidered. It is far better to start the baby early in life sleeping without any pillow at all. A hot-water bottle or bag, covered with flannel, should always be at hand for warming the baby’s cold feet.