The age-herald., 1901-02-03
IN THE INTEREST or CHILDREN
What is Being Done to Secure Pas sage of Child Labor and Com pusOry Education Bills In
 the World of Society.
BY ANNIE kENDRlcK WALKER.

One of the best-known doctors in Bir- mingham is responsible for the statement that there are in the city today at least fifty women who are graduates of various training schools for nursing. This number does not include the women who are em- ployed in the hospitals of the city, but those who do private nursing. There are more than fifty women nurses in the vari- ous private and charity hospitals in Bir- mingham. St. Vincent's Hospital and the Davis & Davis infirmary have a larger number of nurses than all the other hos pitals combined. The latter hospital being a private one, while St. Vincents is a charity hospital, as we'll as containing private wards, would give the Davis hos pital the distinction of employing the greatest number of women nurses of any private hospitat in this section of the South It is the only private hospital in the State that is equipped with a training school for nurses This school was opened several years ago. St. Vincent's Hospital has re- gently opened a training school, thus in creasing Birmingham's facilities for train ing young women to become professional nurses.
 The doctor whom I have taken the lib-
 
 subject of nursing as profession for wo- men was of his strongest themes, and he predicted that the women's colleges in future would necessarily include in their curriculum the study of diatetics and other branches taught in the hospital training schools He dwelt upon the necessity of women realizing the importance of sanita- ry conditions, and this knowledge acquired in the training schools for nurses was equally important for women who were not studying to be professional nurses but who frequently bemoaned their ignorance of the simplest hygienic laws. He express ed the opinion that the hospitals would in time become the finishing schools of the country.
 And even now a visit to any of the great hospitals of the country would indicate the truth of this statement
 l have always accounted it privilege an opportunity that l once enjoyed of go- ing through the most superbly equipped hospitals in New York, and of meeting the women who were at the head of these great institutions, the women who are at the head of their profession in the North.
 And l account it a second privilege the opportunity that I enjoyed the past week of meeting a number of the women who stand al the head of the profession of nurs- ing in the South, the women who are en- gagged as the head nurses in the hospitals of Birmingham.
 As l chatted with Miss Mary Macintosh, the head nurse at the Davis & Davis In- firmary, I felt that I should apologize for some inquiries that I was making in gard to the qualities required in nurse, for even a glance at this young woman in her immaculate gown told me all that wanted to know. Her fine, expressive face, the strength that characterized her every movement her beautiful dignity, told of the qualities that are required in woman who is placed at the head of a great hos ptal. The frankness with which she dis cussed nursing a profession for women indicated, too, her keen observation and thorough knowledge of all its responsibili- ties.
 'I think that nursing is the greatest of all professions for women," said Miss Mac Intosh, "but I do not believe that any wo- man would take 1t up voluntarily. The young woman who is called upon to support herself and who decides to become a train ed nurse imagines, probably, that this field will offer her the best inducements of earning her support. Accordingly, she makes application to a hospital and if she is accepted she very soon discovers that the requirements specified in her applica- ton blank are not modified in the training school, and she is the first to realize her unfitness for the work If she has entered the hospital through any motive save that of necessity, or love for nursing, she