prospects," severe requirements of training," "period of training too long," "low pay, long hours, restrictions, educational requirements," etc. Entrance requirements vary widely in the different schools, all the way from good moral character to high school graduates. The better class schools, are constantly requiring and obtaining young women who have enjoyed the privilege of high school cation of the public and especially the medical profession. Nurses' Registries and the Alumnae of the various training schools can also do much toward clarifying this distinction in the minds of the laity. Table Showing Results of Survey I. No. of Hospitals-inspected 72. 2. 4. 5. Number of private patients-2,400. Number of nurses in training, all classes-3,168. 6. Age of admission of nurses-average, 24 years. 7. Length of training period-average, 29 mos. 26 days. 8. Compensation paid by institution- 9. Text books furnished? IO. Yes-25; Uniforms provided by hospital? Yes and college educations. This is an en- 3. Number of patients-13,940. to be known as trained nurses and those II. -20; No―51. Laundry done by hospital? Yes-72; 12. Laundry done separate from patients' 13. Nurses' room laundry? 14. Sheets, towels, etc. done separate from patients'? Yes-72. How many nurses in a room? Aver age, 2. 15. Size of nurses' rooms? Average, 1,765.48 cu. ft. 17. 16. How many nurses' bathrooms? 770. 19. The difficulty at once presents itself of preventing those with a limited training. from demanding the compensation of those with more extensive and special training. 20. However, it would seem that this difficulty Is a regular dinner served at midnight. to the night nurses? Yes-67; No -5. Is it cooked and served for them or must they prepare it themselves? 21. 22. Is the food served to the pupil nurses If not, why? See discussion. 23. What are the hours of duty for day 24. nurses? Average, 11 hrs. 20 min. 39. Is it ascertained by inquiry whether the pupil nurse has ever had the socalled "children's diseases" before being assigned to care for them? Yes-48; No-8; 7, contagious cases not taken. For night nurses? Average, 11 hrs. 40. Is time lost by the nurse in line of 50 min. 25. Does this include class work? Yes 51; No-16. 26. Does this include study periods? Yes -32; No-39. duty obliged to be made up by her at completion of training? Yes56; No-7; 5, grant sick leave. 41. Do pupil nurses go out on private cases? Yes-1; No-71. 27. Is this absolutely all the time the 42. 28. If special work is required, is she al- 29. How many night nurses? 607. 31. Average number of patients cared for 15. 43. *How much is charged for their service. *Does the pupil nurses or the hospital receive the remuneration from such cases *If the hospital, is any given to the nurse? 44. 45. *If so, how much? 46. Are pupil nurses used as specials? 47. Is there a limited period during which pupil nurses may be sent out on private duty? I, yes. 48. When nurses receive part of their training in other hospitals or cities, is the cost of their travel borne by them or the hospital? 8, by nurse; 15, by hospital. SOCIAL 49. How much time is a nurse allowed off duty a day? Average, 2 hrs. 22 min. 50. At what hour does she start to work? 7 A. M. At what hour does she stop work? 7 P. M. 52. At what hour is she expected to be in the hospital at night? 10 P. M. How often may a nurse receive late permission a week? Average, 1. 53. 54. 55. Is a nurse's off time permitted to be taken from her for infraction of rules? Yes-19; No—51. Is she given extra duty as punishment? No. 56. What facilities are provided for recreations for nurses? See discussion. 57. Are the nurses and doctors permitted to associate socially? Yes-25; No -30; 10, on special occasions. 58. Why not? See discussion. 59. If there are tennis courts attached to the hospital, is their use restricted to the doctors? Yes-6; No-14. 60. Are the nurses allowed to use them in common with the doctors? See answer to No. 57. 61. Why not? See answer to No. 57. 62. During the training are the pupil nurses obliged to scrub bathrooms? 7, yes; floors? 3, yes; tables? 72, yes. to sweep wards? wards? 42, yes. bedside 69. Are the applicants for admission to your training school of as high a type of girl as formerly? Yes-54; No-II. Are they obliged 70. What, in your opinion, is the principal reason for falling off in appli 5, yes; to dust 63. Must they wash out laparatomy pads? 25 yes; operating sheets? 15 yes; towels? 15, yes. cants for nurses' training? See discussion. 71. Requirements of applicants: See discussion. American Sanitary Work in the Virgin Islands What the American flag means to the Virgin Islands, expressed in terms of life and death, is shown in the vital statistics for the first quarter of the present year. A statement by the chief municipal physician. of St. Thomas and St. John shows that the death rate for the first three months of 1920 is the lowest on record, being about. one-half the death rates recorded for the English, French and Dutch West Indian islands, and four below the 1919 rate of the registration area in the United States. In addition, the birth rate exceeded the death rate by over 133 per cent, while infant mortality was 76.9-less than half the infant mortality recorded in the surrounding islands, and considerably below the rate in the states. Health and sanitary work is under the supervision of the American naval government of the possession, and Navy medical officers aver that the American Red Cross, which has in the last two years spent nearly $44,000 for the equipment of hospitals on the island, has been of very great assistance in improving conditions. Funds for the administration of the island are limited, but in spite of this, in two years the general death rate has been lowered from 39.5 per 1,000 to 13.6, and the infant mortality from 251.7 to 76.9. BY MINNIE GOODNOW, R. N. Concrete instances of work done are always helpful, because they afford the human touch which seems to clinch the proof that a thing can be done. The following cases are presented for the encouragement of those who may have to deal with the handicapped. If one may say. "Another man, no better than yourself, did this," it goes a long way toward making a man willing to try. The men whose stories are told below are a few of the many who have come to the Institute for Crippled and Disabled Men, New York. The Institute dealt with them as individuals, gave them no money, but helped them with a sympathetic understanding, a knowledge of working conditions, and common sense. But Some of them seemed poor material. Some of them had not much background. Most of them were not young men. they are making good. They are no longer dependants, but men and citizens. Len Williams, now forty-four years old, had before his accident been a porter and done coopering. Seven years ago he was hurt in a railroad accident, his left leg being injured and his right arm amputated at the shoulder. He did not work for six years, and finally landed in the City Home because there seemed nothing else for him to do. He read in the paper of the work that the Institute was doing, and despite his six years of idleness, which destroys the backbone of most men, decided that he would like to get out and work. With one arm gone and no stump to use nor to fit an artificial arm to, there was little in store for him; but he was willing to do the little for the sake of his self-respect. He remained at the City Home until the Institute taught him to operate a telephone switchboard. Then he went to a job in an apartment house, where he runs the ele The vator and attends to the switchboard. wage is $50 and room. His employers are good to him, satisfied with his work, he is happy and holds up his head again, because he is a man among men, not an inmate of the poorhouse. Bert Thomas, aged thirty-five, is a stone cutter by trade, and has been, since rheumatism began to disable him, a driver and a night watchman. Finally arthritis deformans so crippled him that he could not keep on with active work. His wife tried to work, but became ill. He sold papers and did what he could, but the situation. became increasingly hopeless. He came to the Institute, who promptly referred him to the Clinic for Functional Re-education; the Clinic found his case not yet hopeless and under their treatment he improved markedly. Their nurses went to see his wife, discovered that her condition was serious and that she needed operation at once. This was arranged for and she came through it well, with a prospect of health ahead of her. Thomas, very much improved, came to the Institute and asked for "a hard job," something which a real man might do. He was referred to a manufacturer of X-ray apparatus, who because he found the man intelligent and skilled in one trade, felt that he had possibilities in another. He was engaged at an initial wage of $20 a week, with a rapid advance as he becomes familiar with the work. Harry Burke, aged twenty-eight a Roumanian who came to this country in childhood, seven years ago had an osteomyelitis of the left thigh, which ended in amputation. His general health is poor, he is neurasthenic, and exaggerates any symptoms he may have. He is of a mechanical turn and had worked but found himself unable to be on his feet. The Insti tute got him a job in a button factory, polishing; later he did polishing of combs, but found it too heavy. Then he did assembling of wireless apparatus, at $20 a week, but that job was too good to last. He was ill at times, and was finally sent for a few weeks in the Burke Foundation hon.c at White Plains. That helped some, but he was found to have renal insufficiency, which meant he should be under close observation and have light work. A seated job in a fire-extinguisher factory solved the problem, and he is getting on fairly well. In the cases of Thomas and Burke, the physical side was the most important. Wise medical advice, coupled with industrial placement done with judgment, saved these two men. When Harlan Folmer was thirty-two years old, he was a roofer by trade, and married. He developed an osteomyelitis in the tibia, which, after some time ended in amputation of the right leg below the knee. He was compelled to go on crutches, since he did not have the money for an artificial son is now ready to work and is earning $15 a week, so that the family are independent citizens. Samuel Jones, aged twenty-three, is a victim of infantile paralysis, his right side is weak, his left leg below the knee practically useless. He uses crutches to get about. Another cripple told him of the Institute. He knew something, of bookkeeping, but there was no job at that available for him. After several trials, he secured a job as time clerk with a lithographing company, where he earns $15 a week. He is very happy there, thinks his firm the best ever. It recently became necessary for him to have an operation, and his employers paid his hospital expenses. He is an enthusiastic member of the cripples' club fathered by the Institute and through it is helping other young men on the way to usefulness and happiness. because he is one of the cheeriest of the lot. Mark Gordon had been a textile or an iron worker up to the age of twenty-two, when he met with an accident which in him in to the shoe trade. The plan did not work out, but the attempt had fired him with ambition. A thermometer jured his spine, and left him with both legs limb. His wife went out to work by the paralyzed. For ten years he went about on day, and it never occurred to either of them crutches, and because of them never atthat he could try to do anything. He stayed tempted to earn a living. One day he saw at home and looked after the two children. the Institute advertisement in the paper, One day he read of the work of the Insti- and came to talk to them. They urged tute in the paper and decided to see what him to try to work and attempted to get there was in it. He was amazed to find himself, crutches and all, promptly landed in a job. At the age of thirty-eight he started work at $15 a week. First it was in a celluloid factory, where the fumes were not good for him. Then he did soldering in small electrical work, and with some home work made from $18 to $24 a week. He purchased an artificial leg, and worked at soldering kitchenware in a large factory, earning $20 a week. The leg was not a good fit, but the artificial limb department him leave it. of the Institute remade it for him, arranging that he might pay for it in installments. Then he wanted a better job, and got it, near home, at a wage of $32 a week. The tated at the knee. He wore an artificial manufacturer agreed to take him and teach him glass blowing. He began at $12 a week. He liked the work and found it had a future. His foreman is good to him, the work is interesting, he has had an in crease of wage, so that he now earns $18 a week. He is happy in his job and informs the Institute that nothing could make Lawrence Gersten, a plumber, had an accident when he was twenty-seven years of age, so that his right leg had to be ampu |