other; for instance, a right judgment in penitentiary work is one of the rarest gifts a person can have, and one fitted to undertake that trying labour would probably scarcely be suited to the task of leading little children. But this is really a matter too plain to require demonstration, and it extends, of course, to the training as well as to the natural disposition; as for example, a person thoroughly well-trained to nurse the sick might still be quite inadequate for the difficulties of parochial visiting, and so on. We would, therefore, have each home and each community belonging to it, set apart for one particular work-of these we would specify, hospitals, prisons, workhouses, schools, pauper lunatic asylums, and general parochial visiting. Penitentiaries, and reformatory institutions, we conceive to have little chance of success unless joined to actual sisterhoods, where the sisters can absolutely live with the penitents. According to the list which we have given above, it may seem as if the scheme were at once impracticable from the certainty, that the authorities in most of these institutions would oppose the entrance of sisters of charity; but we believe, that one or two of each at least, might be induced to try the experiment, and if tried, we have little doubt that the favourable result would soon cause the system to spread. As a proof, that in some institutions at least, the attempt would be met with encouragement, we transcribe the following paper, drawn up by Sir Edward Parry, R.N., the late superintendent of the Haslar hospital, whose untiring zeal for the souls committed to his care will never be forgotten : "It would be scarcely possible to overrate the importance, both to the souls and bodies of men, of employing in public hospitals, nurses possessing not merely the requisite mechanical skill, but likewise a high tone of religious and moral principle. Considering the circumstances under which they exert an influence, for good or for evil, there are perhaps few situations in life in which a discharge of duty upon truly Christian principles, doing it heartily as to the LORD and not to man,'— may be productive of more beneficial consequences. 6 "The locality of the noble institution which I have the honour to superintend renders it extremely difficult,-I may say impossible upon the present system,-to secure the services of a sufficient number of nurses of even tolerably fair character; and as the patients must have a certain number in constant attendance, it unavoidably follows that a considerable proportion of those who are thus employed, are such as nothing but necessity would justify admitting into the establishment. "The same difficulty, though perhaps never in the same degree as in naval hospitals, has been experienced in other establishments for the reception of the sick in this as well as in foreign countries; and many attempts have been made to remedy the evil. The most successful of these, because it was founded on the right principle, has been made at Kaiserswerth, near Düsseldorf, in Prussia, where an institution for the training of nurses (among other benevolent objects) was established about ten years ago by the Rev. Thos. Fliedner. Mr. Fliedner's plan consists in the training of a number of Protestant deaconesses, or nursing sisters, who, from the pure motives of Christian charity, are willing to enter upon this service, without taking any vows, but agreeing to serve for at least five years, and expecting no salary or other recompense beyond a decent and comfortable maintenance. "With these facts before our eyes, showing with what complete success the efforts of the pastor Fliedner have been attended, and the extensive benefits likely to follow them, it is the earnest wish of the principal medical officers of Haslar hospital, no less than my own, to avail ourselves of similar means for improving the class of nurses in this institution. And as we cannot, for a moment, admit a doubt of being able to find, among our own countrywomen, individuals as willing to devote themselves to this 'work and labour of love,' upon the highest principles of Christian philanthropy, as those who have entered upon the same field of benevolence in foreign countries, we are desirous of proposing to our friends to assist us in this undertaking. "The plan we contemplate is as follows :— "1. To endeavour to engage, in the first instance, the services of three or four Christian women, between the ages of thirty and fifty, who, upon the principles and conditions adopted at Kaiserswerth, are willing to devote themselves to this work at Haslar hospital. "2. These persons, when engaged, to be placed for about six months at the German hospital at Dalston, by permission of the authorities of that institution, for the purpose of receiving the necessary instruction in the duties of nursing, and to be trained according to the system pursued at Kaiserswerth-or, if circumstances permit, to be placed at Kaiserswerth for this purpose. "3. Their training being completed, the nurses to be admitted into Haslar hospital, where, although they will receive no pecuniary remuneration, a comfortable home, with a certain allowance for neat and respectable clothing, and a sufficient maintenance will be provided for them. In the discharge of their arduous and self-denying duties, in which they must expect to meet with much to exercise their Christian patience and forbearance, they may depend on receiving from the captainsuperintendent, and other principal officers of the establishment, the most cordial encouragement and friendly support. "Having thus explained the plan we propose to pursue, we would now very earnestly solicit the help of our Christian friends, in seeking out from the circle of their personal acquaintance such individuals as they confidently believe to possess the character and qualifications requisite for this arduous but honourable office. "Although it is fully expected that the nurses when once they have entered on their duties at Haslar, will be adequately maintained on the present government allowance, yet it is obvious that some extra expense must be at first incurred by the proposed system of previous training. "For this purpose we do not hesitate to ask the contributions of those who are willing to assist us in making this experiment, which, if successful (and we see no reason to doubt it), will not only materially improve the comfort and promote the welfare of the patients in this hospital, but may lead to the introduction of a similar system of nursing throughout the hospitals of this kingdom. "Haslar Hospital.-William Edward Parry, Captain-Superintendent, Gosport, June 1847. 66 "We cordially concur in the sentiments expressed in the foregoing statement, and earnestly desire to try the plan therein proposed, in the several departments of Haslar hospital respectively under our charge. "JOHN RICHARDSON, M.D., Medical Inspector. "JAMES ANDERSON, M.D., Medical Inspector. "ALEXANDER STUART, Assisting Surgeon. "The result we give in his own words : "For this plan we did not get one offer to do this service for the love of CHRIST, and of the souls whom He died to redeem, though hundreds of my paper were circulated far and near. And I confess that I have never been able to arrive at any definite or satisfactory conclusion as to the mode of meeting the requirements in a Protestant community."" We have given the above document entire because it meets so triumphantly the objection of which we have spoken, that women would never be permitted to exercise any influence in public institutions, on account of the dread which their governors appear always to entertain of female interference; nor is this a dread which is at all astonishing, considering that any attempt which women have hitherto made to do good in this manner, has been (except in the case of the sisterhoods we have mentioned) according to the dictates of their own private fancy or inclination only, without prudence or restraint. We have, we trust, made it sufficiently clear in all we have said, that we consider it one of the first principles and most essential laws of the system we would see established, that no woman should ever attempt to work as a sister of charity, in any of the fields of labour we have enumerated, except under rigorous obedience to rule and to individual direction, and wherever it is possible as a member of a community, so that none may work single-handed. The untrained and unrestrained zeal of women may be very truly compared to the fire, which within proper limits, gives only warmth and light, but which if suffered to act without check or guidance very soon sets the house on fire. We would gladly, did not our space fail us, touch on the various necessities of all the different institutions we have mentioned, but this is of course quite impracticable in our present limits: the whole subject is indeed so vast and so important, that our highest aim in these pages has only been to make them suggestive of all that may be done by others more capable of inquiring into it. One branch of the work, however, we cannot refrain from briefly noticing, viz., the hospitals of which the paper above quoted speaks, because it would seem that the want of some better feminine influence in them is felt everywhere to be an absolutely crying evil, which an order of sisters of charity alone can remedy. Miss Nightingale's words on this subject are better than ours could be. "That sickness," she says, "is one of the means sent by GOD to soften the heart, is generally acknowledged. Let us go into one of the usual hospitals, and see how this precious opportunity is turned to account. Instead of a school whence the patients return home to their families often renewed, generally improved, we see-as every one conversant with hospitals well knows a school, it may almost be said, for immorality and impropriety; inevitable where women of bad character are admitted as nurses, to become worse by their contact with the male patients and the young surgeons-inevitable where the nurses have to perform every office in the male wards, which it is undesirable to exact from women of good character, how much more so from those of bad-inevitable where the examination of females must take place before a school of medical students-we see the nurses drinking, we see the neglect at night, owing to their falling asleep. Where women undertake so toilsome an office for hire and not for love, it cannot be otherwise; we see the patients procuring spirits by feeing the nurses, and yet there are many surgeons, who still think that such women will tend their patients better than those who undertake the task from Christian motives. They are afraid of their patients being 'excited' by pious nurses. Yet no one can seriously believe that Christian influence is not desirable in time of sickness as well as at other times. It is the abuse of this influence, it is unchristian influence which causes the fear and jealousy we so often see. No one can seriously believe that the word let fall by the nurse, during a restless night, has not had a better effect upon the suffering patient, than the set visit of the Chaplain. Educate, qualify the nurses to exercise this influence, to drop the word in season, and this jealousy will fall away of itself." In another work from which a good deal of information on these subjects may be derived, entitled "Hospitals and Sisterhoods," there are some remarks on this subject which show still more forcibly, the fearful nature of the deficiency in hospitals. Speaking of those in London, this author says, "Only a very low class of women apply for the situation of under nurses, and the difficulty of procuring them is, at all times, so great, that matrons are often obliged to receive them without obtaining any character. Till within the last few years, drunkenness was carried on to a fearful extent, and, though this has been considerably checked, it still remains the besetting sin of nurses; and excuses are made for it, on the plea that they need the support of spirits for their harassing work. A medical man, in one of the large northern hospitals, was questioned as to the religious character of the nurses—‘If I can but obtain a sober set,' was his answer, 'it is as much as I can hope for.' Frightful tales of profligacy amongst the nurses, have been brought to light by inquiry, and it is often the case that the best nurses, so far as medical attendance and skill goes, are the worst characters. Respectable patients who have come into a hospital, hoping and believing that they should benefit both bodily and spiritually, have gone home worse in the latter respect than they came in, their tone of mind lowered by the conversation they have heard unchecked around them; and even where all is outwardly correct, the patients' sufferings are too often aggravated by the rough treatment they receive, the harsh words spoken, the absence of that tender sympathy which soothes prolonged pain and sickness, and which, amidst every other privation, they might have had at home. "The numbers of sick who come under hospital care in London are In patients Total. 85,620 . 268,059 "This only includes the hospitals, not the dispensaries. When we find everywhere the progress of error, is it not necessary to consider at what points light can be diffused? in what way the poor can be reached?" Would that the many "careless daughters" of our land, the women who are at ease," would but consider how these vast fields lie fallow in the vineyard of their LORD-the enemy sowing tares within them unmolested-and how they with but a little self-denial for the brief hour of life, might cause these deserts to blossom as the rose, bearing rich fruit to life eternal, whilst of themselves it would be said in very truth, that they in blessing were most blessed. In furtherance of the organization of a system which would employ all our single women according to their different circumstances, we would also have religious houses of an intermediate kind, between the highest order of sisterhoods and the training establishments, of which we have given a mere rough sketch. They should be inhabited by communities, whose rule should be to devote themselves to a residence of a certain number of years, according as their other ties permit them, without being bound to give themselves up to the life for their whole existence; such as these would be especially useful in hospital work. One good work which we have mentioned in our list, the care of reformatory schools, has not as yet been attempted by any sisterhood or by churchwomen at all, so far as we know, though something of the sort, we believe, has been established by dissenters; and we would much desire to awaken the attention of our readers, to the great necessity which exists for such institutions. There is now, thank Gop, some attempt made at providing refuges for fallen women, (though utterly inadequate as yet, to meet the fearful extent of this particular evil) but anyone who is brought in contact with the poor, must feel at once how deeply important it is, that |