The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1857-10-15
WASHINGTON. DC.
From Mrs. Jspeson's Sisters of Charity
HOSPITALS OF PIEDMONT.

Rad. when in Piedmont, particular oppor-
tuuities for learning the state Of feeling In re-
gard to the service of the hospitals, and It DE-
serves some consideration. Ia So
A great number of the medical students were
in opposition to the Sisters employed in the
hospitals; AND, on inquiring, I found that this
opposition arose from various causes. In the
first place, it was generally allowed that there
is 3 great laxity of morals--I might give it q
harder nsme-prevalent among the medical
students in Turin, az elsewhere; and that the In
faence of these religious women, the strict or
der and surveillance exercised and enforced by
them wherever they ruled, is in the highest de-
gree dstasteful to those young men; more
especially the protection afforded By the Sisters
10 the poor young female patients, when conva.
lescent, or after leaving he hcs3itals, dad act
ually excited feeling against osm though
a women, and as religious women, one might
think that this was duty, and not the least
sacred of their duties.
This adverse feeling took the color of liber.
alism. sttA Ef
Now l had, and have, an intense sympathy
with the Piedmontese, in their brave struggle
for political and religious Independence; but !
cannot help wishing and hoping that the re-
form, in both cases, may be carried out in the
progressive, not in the destructive, spirit and,
thanks to those enlightened men who guide the
councils of Piedmont, and who do not "mis-
take reverse of wrong for right" il has hitherto
been 30.
1t will be remembered that the Sisters of
Charity were excepted, when other religious
orders were suppressed; and, in consequence,
, it was sort of fashion with an ultra party to
consider them as q part of an ecclesiastical
regime, which had been identified with al the
evils of tyranny, ignorance, and priestly domi-
nation. This feeling was subsiding when / Was
there. The heroism of the sixty-two Sisters of
Charity, who had accompanied the Piedmontase
armies to the East, and of their Superior,
Madame de Cordera, had excited in the public
mind degree of enthusiasm which silenced
the vulgar and shortsighted opposition of set
of dissipated, thoughtless boys.
One thing more had occurred, which struck
me- A few months before my arrival, and a.
a part of this medical agitation, q petition or
protest had been drawn up by the medical stu.
dents and the young men who served in the
apothecaries' shops, against the small dispense
res and in6rmaries which the Sisters had Of
their own, for the poor and for children. The
plea was, not that their infrmaries we're ILL
served, or that the medicines we're il-com.
pounded, or that any mistakes had occurred
from ignorance or unskilfulness, bat that this
stock the bread ont of the mems mouthsL"
Before we laugh at this shortsighted folly and
cruelty, which supposes that the interests of the
two sexes can possibly be antagonistic, instead
of being inseparably bound up together, we
must recolect that we have had some speci-
mems of the same feeling in our own country !;
as, for instance, the opposition to the female
school at Marlborough House, and the steady
opposition of the inferior part of the medical
profession to all female practitioners. That
some departments of medicine are peculiarly
suited to women, is beginning TO strike tbs pub
lie mind. / know that there are enlightened
and distinguished physicians, both here and IN
France, who take this view of the subject,
though the medical profession as body enter
tain a peculiar dread of all innovation, which
they resist with as much passive pertinacity ~
boards of guardians and London Corporations.
Before leave Piedmont, I must mention two
more hospitals, because of the contrast they
afford which will aptly illustrate the principle
i am endeavoring to advocate.
The hospital Of st. John at Vercelli, which
had the opportunity of inspecting infinitely, left
a strong impression on my mind. At the time
/ visited it, it contained nearly four hundred
patients. There was beside, in an adjacent
building, school and hospital for poor chill
dren. The whole interior economy of these
two hospitals was under the management of
eighteen women, with staff of assistants both
male and female. The Superior, very hand.
some, intelligent woman, had been trained at
Paris, and had presided over this provincial
hospital for eleven years. There was the same
cheerfulness which / have had occasion to re.
mark in all institutions where the religious and
feminine elements were allowed to influence the
material administration; and everything was
exquisitely clean, airy, and comfortable. In
this instance, the dispensary (Pharmacie) was
managed by apothscaries, and not by the
women.
Now. in contrast with this hospital, will
describe q famous hospital at Turin. 1t is re-
cent building, with all the latest improvements,
and considered, in respect to fitness for its pur.
pose, as a chef d'euUre of architecture. The
con;rivances aud material appliances for the sick
and conyalescent were exhibited to me as the
wonder and boast of the city; certainly they
were most ingenious. The management was
in the hands of committee of gentlemen; un
der them numerous staff of priests and physi
Clans. Two or three female servants of the
lowest class were sweeping and cleaning. In
the convalescent wards saw q great deal of
card-plsying. All was formal, cold, clean, and
silent; no cheerful, kindly faces; no sot, low
voices, no light, active figures, were lowering
ing, shared, as / found, by those Who were with
me. One of them, an accomplished physician,
felt and candidly acknowledged the want Of
female influence here.
One of the directors of the great military
hospital at Turin told me that be regarded It
as one of the best deeds of his life, that he had
recommended, and carried through, the em-
ployment of the Sisters of Charity in this inst
tuition. Before the introduction of these ladies,
the sick soldiers had been nursed by orderlies
sent from the neighboring barracks-men cho-
sen because they we're unfit for other work.
The most rigid discipline was necessary to keep
them in order; and the dirt, neglect, and gen.
eral immortality, were frightful. Any change
was, however, resisted by the military and med
ical authorities till the invasion of the cholera
then the orderlies became, most of them, use-
less, distracted, almost paralyzed with terror.
Some devoted Sisters Of Charity we're intro
duced in a moment of perplexity and panic
then all went well-propriety, cleanliness, and
comfort, prevailed. No day passes" said my
informant, that / do not bless God for the
change which was the humble instrument Of
accomplishing in this placei el.
Very similar was the informstion received
relative to the naval hospital at Genoa bat
had not the opportunity of visiting it.
Another excellent hospital at Turin, that Of
St John, contained, when visited it, four hun.
dred patients, a nearly equal number of men
and women. There were, besides, separate
ward for sick children, and two wards contain.
ing about sixty incurables-the bed ridden and
helpless poor, of the same class which find ref
uge in our work-houses. The whole of this
large establishment was under the manage
ment OF twenty-five religious women, with sta q
of about forty-6ve assistants, men and women.
and large number of medical men and stu.
dents. All was clean, and neat, and cheer.
ful H. A.