NURSERY RHYMES 



NURSING 



555 



city, which a century hefore had embraced the 

 Reformed doctrines. Still, in 1803 it was allowed 

 to retain its independence, with a territory of 483 

 sq. m., containing 80,000 inhabitants ; but, in con- 

 sequence of disputes with Prussia, it entered into 

 the Rhenish Confederation, and in 1806 was trans- 

 ferred to Bavaria. 



See German works by Voigt (1862), Lachner (4th ed. 

 1873), Priem (1874), Stockbauer ( 1879 ), Roth (1884). 



Nursery Rhymes, metrical jingles trans- 

 mitted in folklore and mechanically repeated by 

 children at their play, without knowledge of their 

 significance or origin. Being in verse form they 

 are easily preserved, either as mere traditional 

 rhymes, or as formulas to be used in games ; and, 

 as unconscious survivals of a remote antiquity, 

 they not infrequently preserve for the scientific 

 inquirer fragments of ancient incantations for heal- 

 ing diseases or revealing the future, and invoca- 

 tions combined with ceremonial observances, while 

 the intimate nature of the religious conceptions 

 involved points back unmistakably to a mediaeval 

 origin. Children with all their inventiveness and 

 imagination are slaves of the letter, and most of 

 their game-formulas are handed down from genera- 

 tion to generation along with the games them- 

 selves. In their characteristic directness, point, 

 and quaintness of phrase, they defy imitation, and 

 in their faculty of arresting the imagination from 

 age to age they reveal the instinct of ]>erpetuity. 

 Many of them are beyond doubt survivals among 

 children of May games, ring-songs and dances, 

 rounds, and kissing games which in old England 

 were played by grown-up people, and these of the 

 higher grades of society. And Mr Newell has 

 pnned that many of these are still current in 

 America which are now forgotten in the mother- 

 country, although they not infrequently have 

 equivalents on the continent of Europe. 



Under the same general head we include nursery 

 rhymes proper, and counting-out rhymes ( to decide 

 who shall begin a game), cumulative rhymes, 

 coin-ting and love games, playing at work, flower 

 oracles, and riddle and guessing games ; while on 

 the other hand popular mottoes, old saws and 

 maxims relating to husbandry, the weather, or the 

 like, and all the wealth of local rhymes and sayings 

 lielong to the popular rhymes of folklore generally. 

 The verses usually consist either of a rhyming 

 couplet, or of four lines in which the second and 

 fourth rhyme; they are often accompanied by a 

 refrain, which may be a single added line, or may 

 be made up of two lines inserted into the stanza ; 

 and in place of exact consonance, any assonance, 

 or similarity of sound, will answer for the rhyme. 



See FOLKLORE, PROVERBS, and KIDDLES; also J. O. 

 Halliwell's Nuricry Rhymes of England ( 1H-12 ; titli ed. 

 ISfiO); K. Chambers, Popular Khymei of Scotland 

 (1842); E. Holland, Rimei tt Jeux de VEnfiince (Paris, 

 1883); and especially W. Wells Ne well's admirable 

 Oame and Sontii of American Children (New York, 

 1884 ). the best work of its class, and a contribution of 

 the first importance to scientific folklore. Appended is 

 a list of sixty-five works bearing on the subject 



Nursing. There are few subjects affecting our 

 social and domestic life in which more interest is 

 taken at the present time than in the nursing of 

 the sick, and there are not many in which time lias 

 brought about so great an improvement. Fifty 

 years ago a well-trained and qualified nurse was 

 almost unknown, and. consequently, the care of 

 the sick often devolved upon persons totally unfit 

 for, and ignorant of, the duties required of them. 

 Now there are large numbers of refined and sympa- 

 thetic women, thoroughly trained in all the different 

 branches of nursing, whose services can l>e obtained 

 at a moment's notice. It was Miss Nightingale 

 (q.v.) who first awakened the public mind to the 



need that existed for trained nurses, and who thus 

 opened up, what has proved to be, such a large 

 field for the employment of women taken from 

 all classes of society. Dating from the time of her 

 heroic services in the Crimea, the interest taken in 

 sick-nursing has gone on steadily increasing. As 

 a national recognition of her self-devotion the first 

 training-school for nurses was in 1860 founded in 

 London in connection with St Thomas's Hospital, 

 under the title of the ' Nightingale Fund Training- 

 school for Nurses.' The number of probationer 

 nurses, at first 15, had in 1871 increased to 32; 

 and up to 1889 upwards of 500 trained nurses 

 had l>een sent out from the school. The different 

 branches of nursing are hospital nursing, private 

 nursing, district nursing, army and navy nursing, 

 and workhouse infirmary nursing. Monthly nurs- 

 ing, massage, and attendance on the insane may 

 be regarded as special developments arising out of 

 ordinary sick-nursing. 



For those who desire to make nursing a profes- 

 sion, a thorough hospital training is now absolutely 

 necessary. Hospital training may be had in two 

 ways, either by paying a certain board for a limited 

 period, or by receiving wages and being under 

 agreement to remain in the hospital for a certain 

 term after training. The duties of a hospital nurse 

 are arduous, and can only be successfully performed 

 by those who are possessed of both bodily and 

 mental strength, as well as of a real interest in 

 attending on the sick. Sonic of the work is simply 

 that of a housemaid, such as dusting the ward 

 and cleansing the utensils. At the Glasgow 

 Western Infirmary, for instance, the probationer 

 is trained in 'the dressing of blisters, burns, sores, 

 wounds, and in applying fomentations, poultices, 

 and minor dressings ; in the application of leeches, 

 Imth externally and internally ; in the administra- 

 tion of enemas ; in the l>est method of friction to 

 the liody and extremities; in the management of 

 helpless patients i.e. feeding, moving, chang- 

 ing, their personal cleanliness, preventing and 

 dressing bedsores; in bandaging, making bandages, 

 padding and lining splints ; in making the beds of 

 patients, and removing sheets while the patients 

 are in bed ; in sick-cookery, such as the making of 

 egg-flip, gruel, &c.' The probationer has usually 

 to wait on the doctor and staff-nurse or sister as 

 well as on the patients, and she must attend the 

 lectures on various medical and surgical subjects 

 that now form part of the training in most hos- 

 pitals. After training as a probationer in the 

 management of medical and surgical cases, includ- 

 ing Itoth day and night work, the usual course is 

 to liecome ward- or staff-nurse, or to leave the 

 hospital for the special kind of nursing which is 

 intended to be followed. A certificate is usually 

 given at the close of the period of training. The 

 age at which probationers enter the adult hospitals 

 is from twenty-five to thirty-five, and from twenty 

 to thirty at the children's hospitals. The salaries 

 are usually 10 the first year, 15 the second, 20 

 the third. Uniform is provided in addition, and a 

 certain amount of washing allowed for. Sisters or 

 head-nurses receive from 30 to 60, matrons from 

 100 to 250. It is often necessary to wait for 

 months before getting into any of the large hos- 

 pitals, as there are always many more applications 

 than vacancies. At the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary 

 there are usually over 500 applications yearly for 

 the 25 vacancies. The principal training-schools 

 in London are London Hospital, St Bartholomew's, 

 St Thomas's, Guy's, and St Mary's ; in Scotland, 

 the Edinburgh Koyal Infirmary and Glasgow 

 Western Infirmary; in Ireland, the principal 

 hospitals in which training may be obtained 

 are Sir Patrick Dun's, Adelaide, and Meath 

 in Dublin, and the Koyal Hospital in Belfast. 



