300 POT-POURRI FROM A SURREY GARDEN 



women, depriving them of the leisure and pleasure 

 belonging to their youth — that leisure and pleasure 

 which justified Scott's description of woman as 'un- 

 certain, coy, and hard to please,' and the want of which 

 certainly also takes from them the right to consider 

 themselves, or even the power to be, ' ministering angels.' 

 What is done for duty and money can never be the same 

 offering as what is done for love and devotion. The 

 public only are to blame if they think a strong young 

 woman ceases to be a human being because she works 

 hard and wears a nurse's dress. It is of distinct im- 

 portance that in the case of choosing a nurse for a 

 husband, brother, or son, a woman should feel the 

 responsibility of the situation, and not take the first nurse 

 that turns up at an institution. The selecting of a nurse 

 should most certainly not be left to chance. The nurse 

 should be suitable for the case from the point of view of 

 the famUy as well as that of the doctor. Why should we 

 expose two human beings under our charge to temptations 

 which we should not sanction under any of the other 

 circumstances of life ? Convalescence ought to be a time 

 of rest both for mind and body, not a time that is need- 

 lessly prolonged for the sake of foolish and unworthy 

 flirtation, which is no more sanctioned by the higher 

 members of the profession than is flirtation between 

 a doctor and his patient. The accusations that just 

 lately have been showered on the nurses, they deserve, 

 it seems to me, no more than any other class of 

 young women who share our common human nature. 

 The blame rests with those who select the nurse — flrst 

 the matron of the hospital or institution, and then the 

 person who chooses her for the individual case. 



The commonest of our national faults, and one which 

 affects aU our health regulations, is surely that we 

 sanction the obvious causes of a situation, and then are 



