The dusting is even more important than the sweeping, and must be done with great thoroughness and care. Each patient in the hospital is helping to make the atmosphere impure by throwing off disease germs. Dried particles of pus, blood and excreta, lint from blankets and bedding, scales of epithelium and other matter, more or less dangerous, are flying about in the air and being deposited on ledges, skirting boards, window sills, bedstead rails and the various parts of furniture. To bring in a feather duster or a dry cloth and attempt to dust, is simply to flap the dust from one place only to have it settle in another. It results in a more equal distribution of the dust, but it is not dusting. Dusting is removing dust, and the only way that can be done effectually is by the use of a damp cloth, to which the particles will adhere. Furniture that will be injured by that kind of dusting is out of place in a hospital. Special attention needs to be given to dusting under radiators and in obscure nooks where dust will accumulate if not looked into daily. [Sidenote: Bath Rooms] The bath rooms, toilet rooms and lavatories also need constant supervision, and ought to be as carefully cleaned and ventilated as any part of the hospital. Indeed, special pains are needed if they are to be free from bad odors. Disinfectants should be used freely in these places at least once a week, and any evidence of imperfect drainage promptly reported and attended to. A good disinfectant for this purpose is the one known as the “American Standard,” made by dissolving six ounces of chloride of lime in a gallon of water. For cleaning bath tubs kerosene is recommended. It is a wise precaution to constantly keep posted over closets and sinks a notice prohibiting the throwing of matches, hair and insoluble material into them. More than one plumber’s bill has been caused by a careless maid emptying her bar of soap from her scrubbing pail into the closet. In fact, so common is that occurrence that a careful housekeeper has invented a device for holding the soap, thus preventing such accidents, and also the waste caused by leaving the soap in the water. This device is a tin box about eight inches long by four inches wide and four inches deep in front and six at the back. On the back are two pieces of wire bent over to fasten the box to the outside of the scrubbing pail. These can be made by any tinsmith at a very small cost, and will hold a cake of soap and a cake of sapolio. They will save many times their cost in a year. CHAPTER III. [Sidenote: The Hospital Ward]