nurses. These nurses were educated, intelligent, and refined, and many of them were from the highest ranks of society. They were skilled nurses. They adopted this employment from strong religious convictions of duty, and, entering upon it as a life-work, submitted to thorough preparation by systematic training. The division of labor was as follows: one had entire charge of the culinary department, a second of the laundry, and the remaining four of the several medical and surgical divisions of the wards. Under their immediate supervision, therefore, was the preparation of the diet, the washing of the clothes and bedding of patients, the administration of medicines, and all minor dressings. There was also the usual number of visiting physicians and surgeons, and a resident medical student. Although there was but a single male attendant, assistance was always to be obtained among the convalescents. The administration of the medicines was never committed to assistants, nor, indeed, any of the details of nursing. Surgical dressings of a delicate character were, of course, under the immediate charge of the resident physician, and the assistance of male patients from their beds was the proper duty of the orderly. During a residence of a year in this institution, we never knew the slightest indecencies on the part of male patients toward their nurses, nor were the latter ever placed in a position embarrassing to one unaccustomed to the daily duties of hospital

wards. On the contrary, the patients entertained the most profound respect for the nurses, the convalescents volunteering with the utmost alacrity to aid them in their duties. In regard to that hospital, we speak but the unanimous sentiment of every physician and surgeon connected with it when we affirm that in cleanliness of wards and beds, in the preparation of the food for the sick, in the precise administration of medicines, in watchful care at the bedside, in a a word, in everything pertaining to the management of the domestic and medical department of a hospital, this was a model institution, and one which has no equal in this country. And if we add to these excellencies the thousand little offices of kindness which woman alone knows how to bestow upon the sick and suffering, we need not be surprised that many a patient from that hospital was heard in after years to utter a benediction upon his former nurses, the good Sisters of Charity! The testimony of those who have seen the practical working of the system of female nursing is to the same purport; and as such evidence is that upon which we must rely in coming to a rational conclusion, we shall refer briefly to the opinions of those who have had opportunities for extended observation. At Guy's Hospital, London, there were no male nurses in 1857, according to the evidence of Mr. Steele, its superintendent. There were eighteen chief nurses, having charge of the day and night nurses; of

the former there were twenty-seven, and of the latter twenty-three. The duties of the chief nurses are thus stated: "They have the general superintendence of the wards, and they are responsible to the physicians for the medicines and wines, and for the cleanliness of the patients; they have charge of the ward furniture and the bed-linen." The other nurses had the immediate charge of the patients. In reply to the question, Does your system of nursing work well? he answered: "Remarkably well." The only improvement suggested was the employment of one or two orderlies for the venereal and bad surgical cases. The same system was in operation in London Hospital. After an extended investigation of the working of the hospital systems on the continent, Mr. Alexander gave evidence before a Parliamentary Commission as follows: "From what we saw and heard of the female nursing in Paris and Brussels, there can not be a doubt that good results would follow the introduction of a certain number of well-selected educated nurses to our hospital establishments. In Jamaica, in 1837, I recommended female nursing to be employed, from what I saw of the evil effects, and even risk of life, by orderly or soldier nursing in severe cases, but no attention was paid then to my recommendation; and from my more extended experience, I am still more convinced of the advantages that would be derived from the judicious introduction of female nursing

into our permanent hospital establishments." It appears also, that at the time this investigation was made, the French emperor was forming a corps of female nurses for military hospitals, the selection being made from the Sisters of Charity in the civil hospitals. During the Crimean war female nursing in military hospitals was put to a practical test, and the opinions of those who witnessed its efficiency are worthy of especial consideration. Dr. Parkes, who had charge of the Renkioi Hospital, says: "I have a very high opinion of female nurses, if they have been trained and are proper nurses." Mr. Meyer, Medical Director of the Civil Hospital at Smyrna, states that "they worked uncommonly well; out of twenty-two female nurses only one was removed for any misconduct. Several

of the ladies that we had did the work uncommonly well, and it would have been very difficult to have got a larger class of severe cases of fever attended to so well by night and day except by the agency of those ladies, who were thoroughly to be relied on, not only from their superior intelligence but their devotion to the work." But we need not multiply this testimony, for we require no further arguments or evidence to prove the importance of employing qualified female nurses in civil and military hospitals.

XXVII.

MATERNAL VIGILANCE.

T is said that Sir Edward Codrington, when

IT

a young officer at Toulon, was so anxious to distinguish himself that he passed the greater part of the day on deck, watching for signals to give intelligence of the movements of the French vessels, and when he retired, he sank into a sleep so profound that the loudest noise did not awake him; but when the word "signal" was whispered in his cabin, he immediately sprang up. This anecdote proves how sleepless in the midst of the profoundest slumbers is that faculty of the mind which for the time being is intensely excited. The same truth is well illustrated in the case of the mother. She is the most sleepless person in the household. For months, and often for years, she does not enjoy two consecutive hours of sleep. But it is not the noises in the street, nor anxiety, nor nervousness, that disturb her repose. She can sleep soundly when others are made wakeful by unusual sounds or voices. But there is one sound, one voice, more potent in her ears than all others: it is the voice of her child. When that is heard, even in the faintest whisper, she arouses from the deepest sleep; however in