280 WOMAN IN SCIENCE 



cures that were reported in so many religious houses 

 cures so extraordinary that they were usually regarded by 

 the multitude as miraculous and discloses the secret of 

 the success of so many nuns in the alleviation of physical 

 and mental sufferings. It was not because they were 

 thaumaturges, but because they were good nurses, and 

 because of their thorough knowledge of the healing art, 

 that they were able to diagnose and prescribe for diseases 

 of all kinds with a success which, in the estimation of the 

 multitude, savored of the supernatural. 



There was also another reason for the fame of convents 

 as sanctuaries of health. They were usually situated in 

 healthy locations where there was an abundance of pure 

 water, fresh air and cheerful sunshine. Then there were 

 likewise a wholesome diet, good sanitary conditions, and, 

 above all, regularity of life. 



The same can be said of the hospitals connected with the 

 convents. They were not like some of the public hospitals 

 of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in many of the 

 large cities of Europe repulsive, prison-like structures, 

 with narrow windows and devoid of light and air and the 

 most necessary hygienic appliances institutions that were 

 hospitals in name, but which were in reality too frequently 

 breeding places of disease and death. 1 



i ' ' In the municipal and state institutions of this period the 

 beautiful gardens, roomy halls and springs of water of the old 

 cloistral hospital of the Middle Ages were not heard of, still less 

 the comforts of their friendly interiors." A History of Nursing, 

 Vol. I, p. 500, M. Adelaide Nutting and Lavinia L. Dock, New York, 

 1907. 



The mortality in some of the state hospitals from the latter part 

 of the seventeenth to the middle of the nineteenth century was 

 appalling, often as high as fifty and sixty per cent. This was due 

 not only to shockingly unsanitary conditions, but also to inordinate 

 overcrowding. A large proportion of the beds, incredible as it may 

 seem, were purposely made for four patients, and six were fre- 

 quently crowded into them. "The extraordinary spectacle was then 

 to be seen of two or three small-pox cases, or several surgical cases, 



