The Memphis appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1886-1890, 1889-06-23
MIR. J. N. Keating's Address.


Mr.. ,. VI. Keating's Address.
Young Lady Graduates, Ladies and
Conference.-The function We are here to
. discharge tonight is more than usually in
4 teresting, because 1t is the first time in the
4 history OF the city or State that women
have been authorized by regularly con-
ierred diplomas to engage in the noble, and
in some respects sacred, calling OF nurse.
II therefore marks an era not only in that
history. but in the progress that women
here as in other parts Of our country, and
indeed, throughout the Christian world.
are making in the direction OF seli-helpand
public usefulness. Congratulate you, grad
yates, upon tho double distinction you
have thus earned IN being the first gradu.
aies from the Memphis Training School
for Nurses, the first established in the
State or IN the South. You have chosen
aproicssion OF great usefulness, one that,
pursued 10 its limits, is only second TO that
OF medicine and surgery. 1t is close akin
tothe healer sart, bearsintimate relation 10
tue surgeons science, and like these Is q
growth and development marked by many
fluctuations, but illumined by the halos OF
thousands Of blessed martyrs. There have
been nurses In all times but not trained
nurses. The mothers and sisters Of our
race have from the first been nurses, aud
lous before medicine came 10 be hon
- MS il is they nursed husbands,
Il aud brothers "back TO liie." But
His Ms curious fact as that
licine aud surgery have been slowly
lived that II was left for our age and
Ie 10 develop the trained, the PROBES.
hal nurse who should be 10 the physician
surgeon Us his right hand, almost essen
1 In the cure OF disease aud the healing
wounds The scholars who have trans
lied the cylinders found In the mounds
Hat hide ali that remains OF Assyrian civ.
iization. and who claim for that ciyiliza.
ION priority 10 that OF the Egyptians, have
discovered that the wise and learned men Of
Babylon had discriminating knowledge Of
disease, and yet medicine rs we know IL,
based ON knowledge Of hygiene and the
curative properties OF potent chemicals, Is
modern, quito modern. Prof. Sayce, In
\ the published edition OF his "Hibbert
Y Lectures" delivered at Oxford University,
" in 1887, on tho "0rigin and Growth OF Reli-
gion as illustrated by the Religion Of the
Ancient Babylonians, gives In the third OF
his appendices some magical texts IN which
various ulttutch ht tuuultiAtcht hhoNluk
that observation had enabled the Mag TO
enter into a nice differentiation. OF the pains
and aches that were then, MS now, the PEN
allies nature inflicted for violation OF the
laws OF health and life. On the thirty.Gith
limo Of this appendix VIC find only the
words 1.-THE Nurse" which aro proof that
already there were persons designated and
known rs nurses, who, perhaps, dis
pensed THE medicine OF the god Of Joy"
OF which We also read In the Babylonan
"Litanlcs 10 the Gods" That the Egyp-
tians had attendants, II not nurses,
Is a ready conclusion justified by their
y systematic division OF labor and their
knowledge Of anatomy and OF herbs,
due 10 their wonderful skill in en-
balming the dead. With the Greeks until
the limo OF Hippocrates the sick were taken
10 tho temple OF Esculapius, where the as
sistancc Of the gods was invoked TO effect
cure. Hippocntes separated the Office
OF tho physician from that Of the priest and
thus laid the foundations OF rational and
modern medicine. But as yet tho nurse
was but ''thc nourisher," as the anglo-Sax-
ons defined their word norice, from which
our word nurso Is derived. Alter Hip
pocrates, and rs a result oil his labos,
came tho school OF Alexandria, iOs.
lCINu AilNN w hhN 'NNef WIN
when tho Saracens came into power
founded hospitals, ono Of the most noted
OF which was established at Bagdad, where
no doubt there were at least attendants II
not nurses. Tho Arabians encouraged
tho Jewish physicians In their rational
methods, and they themselves founded
the true beginnings OF chemical analysis
and compounds But all this faded before
religious ianaticism and a revival Of faith
In miracles, and for centuries the alchem-
ist usurped the place Of the chemist
necromancy became a word full OF evil
import 10 learned men OF every degree,
medicine and surgery were pushed
back and the dark night OF tho middle
ages overlook and covered out Of sight the
discoveries on the threshold Of which the
world had stood, and many OF which have
been revived only In our own day. But
even nj this period, the history Of which
no intelligent person can read without q
ioeling Of Indignation, there were religious
sisterhoods devoted TO the poor and the
sick. Such orders existed as far back "a
the fifth century, when and subsequently
tho Sisters OF ~. John, OF Jerusalem, and
Of 81. Lazarus were notable for the lossci
they sustained In caring Tor lepors, incur
ables, plague-sincken pcor and personI
afflicted with every fol Of loathsoms
disease, and nearly all diseases were Al
that time apt 10 be aggravated 10 loath
somcncB by tho unsanitary conditions
under which the mass Of tho people lived