NEW YORK: D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 72 FIFTH AVENUE 1898. The following notes are by no means intended as a rule of thought by which nurses can teach themselves to nurse, still less as a manual to teach nurses to nurse. They are meant simply to give hints for thought to women who have personal charge of the health of others. Every woman, or at least almost every woman, in England has, at one time or another of her life, charge of the personal health of somebody, whether child or invalid,—in other

* * * * * [Sidenote: Disease a reparative process.] Shall we begin by taking it as a general principle—that all disease, at some period or other of its course, is more or less a reparative process, not necessarily accompanied with suffering: an effort of nature to remedy a process of poisoning or of decay, which has taken place weeks, months, sometimes years beforehand, unnoticed, the termination of the disease being then, while the antecedent process was going on, determined? If we accept this

[Sidenote: Want of attention to hours of taking food.] Every careful observer of the sick will agree in this that thousands of patients are annually starved in the midst of plenty, from want of attention to the ways which alone make it possible for them to take food. This want of attention is as remarkable in those who urge upon the sick to do what is quite impossible to them, as in the sick themselves who will not make the effort to do what is perfectly possible to them. For instance, to the la

[Sidenote: Light essential to both health and recovery.] It is the unqualified result of all my experience with the sick, that second only to their need of fresh air is their need of light; that, after a close room, what hurts them most is a dark room. And that it is not only light but direct sun-light they want. I had rather have the power of carrying my patient about after the sun, according to the aspect of the rooms, if circumstances permit, than let him linger in a room when the sun is off.

[Sidenote: Poisoning by the skin.] In almost all diseases, the function of the skin is, more or less, disordered; and in many most important diseases nature relieves herself almost entirely by the skin. This is particularly the case with children. But the excretion, which comes from the skin, is left there, unless removed by washing or by the clothes. Every nurse should keep this fact constantly in mind,—for, if she allow her sick to remain unwashed, or their clothing to remain on them after bei

[Sidenote: What is the use of the question, Is he better?] There is no more silly or universal question scarcely asked than this, "Is he better?" Ask it of the medical attendant, if you please. But of whom else, if you wish for a real answer to your question, would you ask? Certainly not of the casual visitor; certainly not of the nurse, while the nurse's observation is so little exercised as it is now. What you want are facts, not opinions—for who can have any opinion of any value as to whether

NURSES. Nurse (not Domestic Nurse (Domestic Servant) Servant) All Ages. 25,466 39,139 Under 5 years … … 5- … 508 10- … 7,259 15- … 10,355 20- 624 6,537 25- 817 4,174 30- 1,118 2,495 35- 1,359 1,681 40- 2,223 1,468 45- 2,748 1,206 50- 3,982 1,196 55- 3,456 833 60- 3,825 712 65- 2,542 369 70- 1,568 204 75- 746 101 80- 311 25 85 and upwards 147 16...

NURSES. Nurse (not Domestic Nurse (Domestic                      Servant) Servant) Great Britain and 25,466 21,017 Islands in the British Seas. England and Wales. 23,751 18,945 Scotland. 1,543 1,922 Islands in the British Seas. 172 150 1st Division. London. 7,807 5,061 2nd Division. South Eastern. 2,878 2,514 3rd Division. South Midland. 2,286 1,252 4th Division. Eastern Counties. 2,408 959 5th Division. South Western Counties. 3,055 1,737 6th Division. West Midland Counties. 1,225 2,283 7th Div