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Nightingale, Florence, 1820-1920

"Notes on Nursing What It Is, and What It Is Not"

2. A want of
the habit of observation.
To a nurse I would add, take care that you always put the same things in
the same places; you don't know how suddenly you may be called on some
day to find something, and may not be able to remember in your haste
where you yourself had put it, if your memory is not in the habit of
seeing the thing there always.
[37]
[Sidenote: Approach of death, paleness by no means an invariable effect,
as we find in novels.]
It falls to few ever to have had the opportunity of observing the
different aspects which the human face puts on at the sudden approach of
certain forms of death by violence; and as it is a knowledge of little
use I only mention it here as being the most startling example of what I
mean. In the nervous temperament the face becomes pale (this is the only
_recognized_ effect); in the sanguine temperament purple; in the bilious
yellow, or every manner of colour in patches. Now, it is generally
supposed that paleness is the one indication of almost any violent
change in the human being, whether from terror, disease, or anything
else.


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