296 POT-POURRI FROM A SURREY GARDEN 



EEALTE 



Nurses — ' Janet's Bepentanee ' — Private hospitals — Siek-nnrsing — 

 Convalescence— Medical books. 



OuK home-coming this September was an agitating and 

 painful one. We had been warned by telegraph that we 

 should find grave sickness in the house, and so indeed it 

 was. Doctors, nurses, everything provided before we 

 were able to get back. How little can the young of the 

 present day understand the complete revolution that has 

 come over family life in the last half-century, and how 

 changed are our relations towards the sick, though 

 the invalid may be our nearest and dearest ! Thirty years 

 ago, even in the houses of the comparatively rich, it was 

 exceedingly difficult to get help in iUness ; an old char- 

 woman, a coachman's wife, or a servant out of place, was 

 considered aU that was necessary. Even a partially trained 

 nurse was a very rare thing, and never sought for except 

 in cases of severe operation or dangerous fevers. It seems 

 almost impossible to beUeve that chloroform was not used 

 till the middle of the 'Forties, and that Liston's first great 

 operation with the patient unconscious from ether was in 

 1848. Now, in spite of the many blessings nurses generally 

 bring to the patients, I think the fact that they are usually 

 good and very easily obtained is one cause of the deterio- 

 ration in home-life clearly perceptible to all of us who 

 are of a certain age. Sickness does not now strain every 

 nerve, nor bring the same occupation, the same real 



