The Progress. (Shreveport, La.) 1892-1900, 1894-03-03
HISTORY OF NURSING.
MRS. BEDFORD FENWlCK RELATES
SOME INTERESTING FACTS.

From Earliest Ages the Sick Have Been
Cared For by the Kind Hearted
Only Thirty Years Has the Art As it"w
! Understood Been Practiced
Mrs. Bedford FrnWick. whom many
American women will remember pleasant
Iy in connection with the British nurses
exhibit at the fair. SAYS the Chicago Her
! aId has been writing about the history
and the art of nursing in an English pa
per. She says in part:
II Is only within the last 80 years that
the art OF nursing rs we now understand
1t has been taught and practjccd upon Il
scientific basis, although from the earliest
ages of which We possess any records the
fact has been recognized that attendance
on the sick and suffering is a work dictat-
ed by the n0blest instincts Of humanity
Although the names of celebrated Greek
physicians are handed down to us side by
side with those of their great warriors and
poets, although hospitals built by the
Buddhist kings of ttylon and Cashmere
existed for hundreds OF years before the
birth of Christ, and lIiud0uS raised their
"slckhouses' for animals as well as men
centuries before the first Christian zpna-
dOchium was founded, il is only within
comparatively modern times that we find
any prominent part assigned to nursing in
pubic institutions in connection with the
healing art. In fact, it was not until
Christianity became Il state religion, and
cmperorS and kings founded hospitals "a
part of the duty inculcated upon them by
their creed, that ladies came publicly for
ward to nurse and feed lepcrs aud bcggars,
and knights formed themselves into orders
Tor the protection Of pilgrims in poverty
or illness. After this brotherhoOds were
established, such rs the tranciscans, whose
especial duty was the nursing Of the sick
and which still further rNcmpIitird the fact
that it was considered beneath the dignity
OF the IRON man OF those days TO care for
the weakly and the ailing, and that the
attendance upon such was essentially a
work for the gentle and compassionate In
the 0ld Scandinavian songs and Sagas it
is the women who wait upon the wounded,
watch the dying ami mourn the dead 1t
was their duty to know all the times and
signs Of sickness aud to prepare with mvS-
FERROUS rites drugs as well as charms and
love philters.
Then, as time went ON those who de.
voted their lives 10 the care Of thr sick he
gan to band themselves together into com
munltles and sistcrho.dS, among which
perhaps the most iamUt;s were the l!o,ui-
tai Sisters of st. Catherine and St. Eliza
beth. In the times Of great plaques, when
all fled, we learn that it was these women
who remained steadfast at their posts, dy-
ing among the sufferers whom they had in
charge, faithful to their calling-a noble
example for all future generations of
nurses. When, during the crusades, the
terrible scourge of lcprosy spread through
out Europe, its victims, rs unhappy out
casts OF society, became the special objects
of the charity, compassion and self sacri-
flee Of the nurses of that day, and in the
lazar houses, which were founded every
where, nurses occupied positions of much
responsibility and authority. When. dur
ing the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries,
leprosy died out, these empty houses were
converted gradually into general hospitals,
Nhich in many instances Icing maintained
their original designation, although their
internal organization was slowly altered
to meet their new requirements
A great impulse was given to nursing
by Pope Innocent III, who, at the begin
ming of the fifteenth century. established
the great Hospital Of St. Iipirito at Rome,
placing it under the control of Guy de
Montpelier, founder of the Nursing Or
der of the Holy Ghost Modified as to its
arrangements to meet modern views. it re-
mains to this day a magnificent monument
of the beneliccnt wisdom of its originator.
The first nursing body hearing distinct
~ secular character were the Sisters of
Mercy OF st. Vincent de Paul The found
er of that order undoubtedly gave the i'm
pulse to modern nursing when he ordained
that his followers should have no monas
tcries bat the house of the sick, no cells
but hired room, 10 cloisters but the
streets OF the town and the wards Of the
hospitals, no inclOsITe but obedience and
for convent bars only the fear of God For
a veil they have holy and perfect mod
esty, and while they keep themselves from
the infection Of vice hey sow the seeds Of
virtue wherever they turn their steps"
In England since the downfall of the
monastic institutions nursing has passed
almost entirely out OF the hands Of rri-
gloUs orders, but abroad. until within the
last generation, it has more or less remain.
ed under their control But everywhere
i,t,r f,,r 81,