Because a
patient could get out of a warm-bath alone a month ago--because a
patient could walk as far as his bell a week ago, the nurse concludes
that he can do so now. She has never observed the change; and the
patient is lost from being left in a helpless state of exhaustion, till
some one accidentally comes in. And this not from any unexpected
apoplectic, paralytic, or fainting fit (though even these could be
expected far more, at least, than they are now, if we did but
_observe_). No, from the expected, or to be expected, inevitable,
visible, calculable, uninterrupted increase of weakness, which none need
fail to observe.
[Sidenote: Accidents arising from the nurse's want of observation.]
Again, a patient not usually confined to bed, is compelled by an attack
of diarrhoea, vomiting, or other accident, to keep his bed for a few
days; he gets up for the first time, and the nurse lets him go into
another room, without coming in, a few minutes afterwards, to look after
him. It never occurs to her that he is quite certain to be faint, or
cold, or to want something.
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