The Sun.
London, England, 1854-10-24 00:00:00

NURSES FOR THII WOUNDED.

The following letter has been received by a gen.
tlenian in one of tho midland counties

War. office, Oct. 21, 1854.
Dear Sir,—l beg to acknowledge the receipt of your
letter, stating that you have received several communi-
cations from'ladies offering their services to go out in the
eapacity of nurses, or for the purpose of offering spiritual
ministration, in the Britian General Hospital at Scutari,
and asking what course to take regarding them.
The Government have felt that it would be impossible
to throw open a military hospital,• or indeed any hospi-
tal, to the indiscriminate Nursing of any persons
whose benevolence or wish for employment might induce
them to offer themselves, without evidence of their
experience or fitness to perform the arduous duties they
undertake,

The duties of an hospital nurse, if they are to be pro-
perly performed, require great skill 4.8 well as strength
and courage, especially where the'cases are surgical cases,
and the majority of them are from gun-shot wounds.
Persons who have no experience or skill in such matters
would be of no use whatever and in moments of great
pressure, such as must, of necessity, at intervals occur
in a military hospital, any person who is not of use is
an impediment.

. --
Many ladies whose generous enthusiasm prompts them
to offer their services as nurses are little aware of the
hardships they would have to encounter, and the horrors
they would have to witness, which would try the firmest
nerves. Were all accepted who offer, I fear we should
have not only many inefficient nurdes, but many hysteri-
cal patients, themselves requiring treatment instead of
assisting others.

Nor,—even if capable in other respects, would they
always be ready to yield that implicit obedience to
orders so necessary to the subordination of a military
hospital.
In self-defence, the surgeons before long,
might find
themselves compelled to exclude all the female nurses,
good and bad, with a view to rid themselves of the
troublesome and inefficient.
The Government have come to the conclusion that the
best mode of obviating these dangers and inconveniences
would be to appoint some one person on whose energy,
experience, and discretion they can rely, who would be
the one authority to select, to superintend, and direct,
in the British General Hospitals in Turkey, a staff of
female nurses, herself acting under the immediate orders
of the medical authorities.
Miss Nightingale, who has, I believe, greater practi-
cal experience of hospital administration and treatment
than any other lady in this, country, has, with a self-
devotion for which I have no words to express my gra-
titude, undertaken the noble but arduous work.
She will act in the strictest subordination to the chief',
' medical officer of the hospital ; and the nurses who ac-
company, or who follow her, will in the same manner be
placed completely under her authority, nor will any one be
admitted as an hospital nurse except she have a certifi-
cate signed by the Director-General of the Army Medi-
cal Department upon Miss Nightingale's recommenda-
tion, or that of some person deputed by her. I trust
that all confusion will be avoided by this arrangement.
Miss Nightingale leaves England this evening, 34
nurses accompanying her to Scutari.
No additional nurses will be sent out to her until she
shall have written home from Scutari, and reported how
far her labours have been successful, and what number
and description of persons, if any, she requires in addi-
tion.

Should more be required, a register of their names
will be kept, and applications may he made to Miss
Stanley, No. 6, Grosvenor-crescent, 13elgrave-square ;
or the Hon. Mrs. Herbert, 49, Bielgrave-square ; or to
St. John's Hospital, Queen's-square, Westminster.
It is most important that those who wish to devote
themselves to tile work should fit themselves by previous
training, and acquire by practice in an hospital a know-
ledge of the duties they undertake, and confidence in their
own power to perform them. This they can do by ap4
lineation to Mrs. Gipps, St. John's Hospital, Queen s-
squsre, Westminster.
But, in the meanwhile, no one can..be sent out un,

we hear from Miss Nightingale that they are required
nor would any one going out there be admitted to the
hospital unless provided with the certificate I have
already described.
Ali I have said as to the necessity of order-and autho-
rity as regards the attendaace on the sick and wounded,
so far as their physical wants are concerned, applies
with still more force to the provision for their spiritual
wants.
It would be impossible to run any risk of the military
hospitals being made the arena of hostile efforts directed

. ! 4.