Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-10-17
NURSING THEN AND NOW.
Strides Made in the Profession Since
Miss Nightingale's Day.

To read Florence Nightingales Notes
on Nursing" published IN 1860, brings
realization Of the enormous development,
or, rather. the creation of the profession
Of trained nursing since that day. The
desperation with which Miss Nightingale
enlarges upon certain simple points now
the A B of every sick room, is quite pa
thetic. Certain practices which she in
Weighs against in the sick rooms of even
the wealthy imply disregard of decency
which seems almost unbelievable. The
changing and airing of the bed, the COM
monest sanitary precautions, seem not to
have been known. And these sick-room
customs were a continuation of everyday
housekeeping and sanitation.
Il have known whole houses and hos
pitfalls smell of the sink she says. Il
have met just as strong a stream Of sewer
air coming up the back staircase of a grand
London house as l have ever met in Scu-
tart; and | have seen the rooms in that
house all ventilated by the open doors and
the passages all unventilated by the closed
windows. in order that as much of the
sewer air as possible might be conducted
into and retained in the bed rooms
Miss Nightingale had to begin that tre-
mendous campaign which resulted in the
modern system of trained nursing with
strenuous warfare against dirt The house
keeping practices of the day eXasperated
her beyond measure. IF you like to wipe
your dirty door, or some portion of your
dirty wall, by hanging up your clean gowns
or shawn against it on a peg, this Is one
way. certainly, and the most usual way,
and generally the only way of cleaning
either door wall in a bed ROOM, she
remarks, cauStically.
mo particle of dust is or ever can be
removed by the present system of duStng,"
she cries in despair.
busting means nothing but Tapping the
dust from one part of the room to another.
with doors and windows closed. What you
do it for | cannot think
She goes on to say that the only possible
way to remove dust IS with a damp cloth;
that all furniture should be made so that
a damp cloth can be used on it; that she
has never seen but one really clean floor,
which the Berlin lacquered floor, and
that a vast Improvement in health would
enSue if people would cover the outside Of
their houses with tiles. so that accumu-
lated filth could be washed from them with
a fire engine.
This was a foreshadowing of the imper-
vious floors and walls of hospitals and
family suggests Bellamy's model houses in
Looking Backward" which were so con-
structed that once week or SO the hose
was turned inside and the whole interior
flushed. She also recommends one thing
that almost every civilized city is crying
for today. though few have yet attained 1t
smoke consumers.
The new woman served to point the
moral and adorn the tale quite as well in
1860 as forty-two years later.
1T is, l think, alarming says the great
nurse. in severe sarcasm, peculiarly at
this time, when the female ink bottles are
perpetualy impressing upon us woman's'
particular worth and general missionariness,
to see that the dress of women is daily
more and more uniting them for any
mission or usefulness at all. 1t is equally
untitled for all poetic and all domestic pur-
poses. Compelled by her dress. every wo-
man now either shuffies or waddles. The
fidget of silk and crinoline, the creaking
of stays and shoes, will do a patient more
harm than all the medicines In the world
will do him good. Fortunate ii is if her
skirts do not catch fire. l wish the regis
trar general would tell us the exact number
of deaths by burning occasioned by this
absurd and hideous custom / WISH to,
that people who wear crinoine could see
the indecency of their own dress as others
see it,
Imagine crinoline in sick rooms today.