The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-11-12
DR. DAGGETT'S ADDRESS
DELIVERED TO THE GRADUATE
 NURSES ASSOCIATION.

Nurse of One Hundred Years Ago Not
 to be Compared With the Nurse os
 To-Day-Greatest Strides Have Keen
 Made Since Training Schools Were
 Established Thirty Years Ago-Iu-
 justice BeIng Done Trained Nurses
 by ImItators-Time to Draw Line Re-
 tween Genuine and Spurious-Pro-
 posed Legislation.
 Following is the address delivered by pr. William G. Daggett at the meeting of the State Association of Graduate Nurses. held at the New Haven hospi- tai last Wednesday afternoon:
 In days of old there were in every village four personages who were looked upon as especially wise. These oracular individuals were the priest, the doctor, the professional nurse and the cobbler. The priest and the doctor represented the best there was of book learning, the cobbler was always for some reason suspected of being a petty philosopher, who ruminated wisely on current and past events as he industri- ously cobbled, and the nurse, whose services were mainly exercised at times which had been predicted more or less accurately by the village gossfps, was known to be well laden with family se- crets, and with practical medical lore The latter commodity came out from time to time in the course of her work, but the former emerged more capri ciously, with tea or gin and congenial company as the exciting agent, and its value among the gossips ran to high figures. In trying to picture her per sonal Appearance we can't get far away from the venerable Mrs. Camp, who may be said to have died a useful death, for she has stood out prominent ly ever since as the type of her kind possibly somewhat exaggerated, but that is the usual fate Of types. A ma tronly figure enveloped in many gar- Inents which had long since passed their prime, an umbrella spreading wide even when closed, bonnet which had served over-time, sundry large and ANCAAACAJ 70AAAA4OSy pIO1d 1dGG5 Mllll d sadly incorrect nose, a breath perfumed with alcoholic contents of her tea pot, and an air of aggressiveness which permeated her immediate environment; out of such clements was she construc- ted. Her language was as bizarre as her apparel, and 1t was not inappropri- ate that her thoughts should be clothed as picturesquely as was her person. She doubtless performed her duties with some skill, born of long experi- enee, but duty to herself was para mount with duty to her patient, and she was always industrious in provid- ing for her own creature comforts She was dressed by her patient, and feared by the doctor. Imagine for a moment the dilemma of her patient; racked with the tornents of disease, denied the fresh water which he craved, forced to swallow nauseous draughts which he detested, kept a prisoner in 8 room where light was for bidden to enter, without the fresh air fer which he longer, nearly smothered with bed-clothing when already burn- ing with fever, bled by the medical man whenever his ailment seemed to be gaining on him, and entirely subject, body and soul, to his domineering nurse. Whatever the outcome of the illness, the nurse in due time gathered her things together, took liquid precau- tion against the chill of the outer air, and went her reluctant way to the bed- side of another sufferer. It is related in scripture that Asa was seized with a rnaiady of the feet, that he consulted not the Lord, but his physician, and that in due time he was gathered unto his fathers. Asa might have been con- graduated for not having been assisted by a nurse of the kind described above. --IL Chron. xvi F, 13.
 But time works changes In nursing as we'll as in all other lines of activity and time has done it's good work in this instance. It is fair to say that the at tainments of the nurse are governed by the demands of the practitioners of medicine, and the nurse of one hundred years ago is nc more to be compared with the nurse of to-day than are the physicians of the two periods. A grad ual improvement took place, but, speaking for this country, the greatest strides have been made within the last thirty years, or since the establishment of training schools.
 Twenty years ago last September it was my fortune to begin service as a resident physician in a large hospital in neighboring city. The nursing was then done under the old system of hiring any person who would under take the work for small wages. The object of the hospital managers was to have the work performed up to an av- craze standard as cheaply as possible; and the object of the employees was to secure an easy task and do just enough to hold their places. Some of the nurses showed aptitude for the work and were reasonably efficient in the performance of their duties, but many showed no, such aptitude, and their work was as unsatisfactory as perfume tory work usually is. Furthermore old habits cropped out immediately after each payday, and the general wards were then short handed of nurses and the alcoholic wards had q plethora of patients. After d few days the latter wards esumed their normal condition, and the general wards were supplied as before. At that time antisepsis had just come into vogue, but asepsis had not yet been developed. It was the pe- riod of the charcoal poultice and 'laud-