784. THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ought never to weigh, against the public good ; the latter only is the 

 object of those who are placed in trust of money, institutions, and the 

 public welfare, because of their actual or supposed public spirited- 

 ness and superior intellect. 



Is it necessary to detail the advantages of the services of a trained 

 nurse over those of an untrained one ? The latter class, as a rule, 

 brings to their work no previous education, no theoretical schooling, no 

 technical experience. They come mostly from inferior walks of life, 

 with less intellectual power, and less moral force. Only those who 

 come from better stock, and raise themselves to higher ambitions, 

 will spend money, and two years of their lives, for the purpose of 

 learning both theoretically and practically the art of relieving the 

 sick, aiding their comfort, taking responsibilities which sometimes are 

 as difficult as they are life-saving, and obeying orders with intelli- 

 gence and understanding. That such persons are valuable additions 

 to our hygienic requirements and sanitary progress everybody can 

 conceive. That without them many a case would not recover, in spite 

 of the most competent medical skill, all of you may have experi- 

 enced. I, for one, know from personal experience that many a case 

 can be, has been saved, first by the medical orders ; secondly, and 

 often mostly, by the execution of orders, such an execution as is ren- 

 dered possible by combined knowledge and skill only. If I say that 

 we practitioners have commenced to feel safe in regard to many of 

 our cases only since we could rely on the co-operation of a trained 

 nurse, I express but a common observation. I trust that there are 

 households within hearing which know how to appreciate the services 

 rendered them by a trained nurse. 



So much only in regard to individual cases. But the service to the 

 public at large hitherto rendered, and constantly increasing, is of a dif- 

 ferent and still more important nature. Who is nowadays the teacher 

 of the public at large in sanitary matters, in hygienic rules ? The 

 knowledge of the Church, when it nursed, was faith, and, let us add, in 

 its best times, love. The knowledge of uneducated women was, and is, 

 ignorance driven to actual or alleged work by starvation. The knowledge 

 of a trained nurse is the result of a two years' study under competent 

 teachers, and a constant practice. "Who in the community is her su- 

 perior in the knowledge of the facts mostly necessary for the health 

 and life of your children, and dear ones in general ? The clergyman 

 is no longer the teacher of the mysteries of life and common sense. 

 The schoolmaster or schoolmistress knows about the classics, geogra- 

 phy, and arithmetic, but no normal school ever taught them the ele- 

 ments of applied physiology. The educated member of any profes- 

 sion except the medical has not the slightest idea of the necessities of 

 the body, the action of food, the effect of clothing, and the hundred 

 facts required by different ages, conditions, and states of health. With 

 the exception of the physician, whose advice is frequently sought only 



