Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1898-03-04
ARMY ) NAVY NURSES
HUMANITY A DISTINGUISHING
VIRTUE OF THE AGE.

HUMANITY A DISTINGUISHING
VIRTUE OF THE AGE.
Necessity for Educating Nurses by
Expcricncc-NOmen Arc Better
for Hospital Nurses Than Mcn-
Some Examples of Her Prof.
cicncy-May Be Timely Sug-
gestiOn.
| By Lady Cooke, nee Tennessee Clafiin.
The distinguishing virtue OF this age
is its humanity. Proofs OF this abound
in every direction. Even dumb
creatures receive their full share OF
help and sympathy. Yet great deal
more might be done to ameliorate
human suffering through better
organization of the means at hand.
This is emphatically the case as re-
CARDS the nursing of the sick and
wounded in time of war, for this is
more or less left to chance. We rely
on volunteers, who may he few or
many, fit or unfit, but who because
they are women, are supposed to he
naturally capable of caring for the
sick and wounded. Florence Night
ingale, however, whose experience was
second to none, writes:
at has been said and written scores
of times that every woman makes a
good nurse l believe, on the con-
trary, that the very elements of nursing
are all but unknown" Again she says:
alt seems commonly received idea
among men, and even among women
themselves, that it requires nothing
but a disappointment in love, the
want of an object. q general disgust or
incapacity for other things, to turn a
woman into good nurse"
This reminds one of the Parish where
a stupid old man was set to be school
master because he was "past keeping
the pigs"
The International Conference at
Berlin, 1869, which was attended by
one hundred and sixty-two delegates,
representing almost every State in
Europe, passed twenty-six resolutions,
of which several were as follows:
"l9. 1t is necessary for the vigorous
development of Societies, and as good
preparation for their action in time of
war, to furnish aid and help in
calamities which may happen in time
of peace.
20. Societies of Help should, there
fore, in time Of peace employ them
selves in works of humanity correspond
ing to their duties in time of war, viz
In attending the sick, and in giving
assistance during public calamities
which require, as war does, prompt and
well-organized Help.
"a. They should also make prepare.
tions for the creation of such( military
hospitals as they wish to establish or
to work in time of war (hospitals of
reserve). These preparations would
include the choice of locality, OF the
material, and administration" >
No pen can depict the sufferings of
the sick and wounded in time of war,
even under the most favorable condi-
tions. At the beginning and during
the first half of this century, every
battlefield was an indescribable scene
of horrors. Napoleon lost moEe brave
men by shameless neglect on wounds
and sickness than by the sword and
fire of the enemy.
One of his surgeons writing to
Marshall Duroc, said: During the
Siege of Dantzic, where he had sixteen
hundred wounded and two thousand
! sick, we had not single straw mattress,
no basins, no nurses, in fact, there was
nothing! When, however, nurses were
obtained they were always men, whose
services were secured by fear of punish
ment, and who did not disdain to
practice extortion on the sick and to
rob the dying as we'll as the dead"
ain Spain" says General Foy, "the
wounded were often abandoned for
want OF means of transport; con-
querors or conquered. We have lost
four times more men through the dis
order inseparable from our system Of
war, than by the fire and sword of the
enemy"
1t was much the same at Waterloo,
and cat every period, and amongst all
nations from Cyrus down to Napoleon
Ill" Miss Nightingale says, that
from the 9Th of May to the l4th of
July, 1855, ninety.six per cent. of the
deaths from sickness in the English
Army In the Crlmea, might certainly
have been prevented, and it is we'll
known that the hospitals and barracks
reforms introduced by this most ex-
cellent lady reduced the losses by one
half.
The care of the wounded on the
field must always most largely devolve
upon men. The care of the sick and
wounded in hospital should be chiefly
the work of women. The presence OF
the latter has soothing, salutary, and
great moral influence over men, be-
sides which, under proper training,
women always prove the better nurses.
, ho. hoov, ryo1l romarkpd.