From The Lancet. consistent with Revelation at all. Is it intelligible that a true gospel should NURSING AS A FINE ART. speak through one of its chosen teachers FEW facts in reference to the sick and a threat in which there is no undertone of their welfare are more noticeable than the hope; and should speak through another development of the art of nursing in reof its chosen teachers a promise in which cent years. Twenty years ago nursing there is no undertone of dread? We can was a luxury very much monopolized by only say in reply, that not only in the ut- hospital patients, and even in their case terances of different mouths. is there this the luxury was somewhat of a coarse tendency to teach what appear like incon- character. There were, of course, good, sistent truths, but also in the utterances kind, and wise women in those days who of the same mouth. Christ deliberately had quick sympathies with the sick, and tells his disciples that with men that is whose presence and ministrations in impossible which is not impossible with wards were like those of a mother or a God, for with God all things are possible. good angel, but they were not plentiful, He deliberately tells them to say, after they and the work done was often performed had done all that is commanded, "We are unskilfully and untenderly. It is not unprofitable servants," and yet commands pleasant to recall what must have been them to be "perfect, even as their Father the sufferings of the sick in earlier days in Heaven is perfect." He deliberately in poorer hospitals, especially in poor-law tells them that his gospel is the gospel of hospitals, when given over for the night to peace, and yet that it will bring not peace the care of a nurse not considered good on earth, but a sword. He deliberately enough for day duty, and who prepared tells them that he who is not with them is herself for her nocturnal work by copious against them, and again that he who is not potations of beer. The cry for a cup of against them is with them. His method, water or for a change of posture by a as far as we understand it, is to fix the thirsty or restless patient was often unminds of his disciples on the full signifi- heeded, or only heeded to be rebuked. cance of the moral principle which he is When kindness was not at fault, intelliputting before them, whether it be full of gence was often wanting, and superstition promise or of terror, and not to distract and ignorance had it all their own way. their attention from it to any other. If he The best proof that this is not an exagger is speaking of the downward path, he ation is to be found in the prejudice which shows how infinitely more difficult every still survives against professional nurses. step down renders every attempt to turn There are large numbers of educated peoback. If he is speaking of the love of ple who would not consent on any terms God, he shows how infinite in resources, to have a "hospital" nurse. It can beyond what we can understand, is the scarcely be imagined that their objection redeeming love which goes in search of is to the training received in hospitals. the lost, and seeks to reclaim them. For It must be traceable to experience of the our own parts, we should say that the only old order of nursing, or to the survival of teaching that can be effective is this kind some of its bad traditions. The old order of teaching, though it seems to result not of nursing is not quite extinct. Practiunfrequently in logical contradictions. tioners of any standing could still give inLook at the path of evil, and there ap stances of nurses whose coarse ignorance pears to be no hope. Look at the love of and unkindness brought discredit on the God, and there appears to be no fear. order, who put the wrong end of the cliniLook at both, and we cannot tell which cal thermometer into the mouth, who predominates, so full of evil augury is the seemed to think less of the patient than of inevitable momentum of the downward themselves, who conceived of nursing as career; so full of promise is the inexa calling requiring a large amount of stimhaustible mercy of the infinite love. So far from such contradictions suggesting to us that it is not Revelation with which we are dealing, we doubt whether, human nature being what it is, it would be possible for God to reveal truth to us without revealing what would suggest the most opposite conclusions, according to the different points of view from which we put our questions and try to construct our augury. ulant, and who disgusted all the other members and servants of a household by the assumption of airs of superiority which neither their nursing powers nor their general intelligence justified. It is well worth the attention of all persons interested in nursing as a calling and in the welfare of the sick to consider the reasons for the existence of a still great amount of prejudice against trained Some of it is to be explained by nurses. too hard a view of their function in coming into a house, and by the absence of sympathy, sometimes sympathy even with the patient, who is treated too mechanically, as a mere model requiring dressing or bandaging. But a more common fault is the want of sympathy with friends, and the exaction of too much service from servants who are probably already overtaxed. It would be unreasonable to expect perfection in nurses. The very training they are subjected to gives them that little knowledge and that familiarity with big words which are apt to spoil simplicity and to produce conceit. But after all this criticism-and it is neither illnatured nor unjust truth compels us to say that medical men owe very much of their greater success in treatment to the greater efficiency of nursing, and that that patient who with an acute or prolonged disease refuses the help of a good nurse, not only does an injustice to the members of his household, but sensibly diminishes the chances and the rate of his recovery; and that for one nurse who is selfish or inconsiderate or incompetent, there are ten who are serviceable and sympathetic, and who add infinitely to the comfort of a sick room and to the good chances of a patient. Every now and again one meets with a nurse whose art is in every sense a fine art, and in whose way of making the bed of a patient, preparing his food, or dressing his wounds, there is an element of genius that is missing in all the boasted art of men. That this is likely to be a more and more common experience it is quite reasonable to hope, seeing the number of capable and refined women who give themselves to this work and to the training of others for it; and to the help which earnest and distinguished members of our own profession afford in the educa. tion of nurses. Nursing must, in truth, be a fine art, or it is nothing. It is a calling in which coarseness is almost a crime, and in which every duty should be done delicately and lovingly. The presence of heavy-headed and heavy-footed people with hard hands and harsh voices in a sick-room is the best illustration possible of an error loci. From The Science Monthly. THE TRADE OF ANCIENT EGYPT. FROM four to five thousand years ago, so we know from the Scripture records and from other sources, Egypt was one of the most advanced nations of the earth — probably had long been so and was the centre of commerce and civilization. In a certain sense it was, and is, the geographical centre of the earth. The trade of all the Eastern nations lie open to it, by way of the Gulf of Suez and the Red Sea. The trade of the Mediterranean and the West came to it at Alexandria, or its then equivalent port. The trade of eastern Africa came directly from the Nile. Cairo - "grand Cairo" was what our American friends would call the "hub of the universe," in a commercial sense. All the most treasured products of the world were gathered there, and from thence they were redistributed. How was the redistribution effected? In part certainly by the trading fleets which congregated there, including the famous "ships of Tarshish" now believed by the best authorities to have sailed from Spain, and not from the far East as was long supposed. Now while Egypt occupies so central a position regarding the water ways of the world, a glance at the map shows that it occupies an equally central position in relation to inland routes. From Cairo the great trading caravans periodically took their course into the several nations of the then world. On the north-east, by way of the Syrian Desert to Palestine and Asia Minor; by the east, over the same desert to the val ley of the Euphrates, to Persia, Turkestan, India, China; by the south-east, to Arabia generally, including the famed city of Mecca; by the west, over the Libyan Desert, to the great cities of northern Africa. It was perhaps at a later date that they visited the eastern shores of the Baltic. King Solomon, who did so much to revive the trade of the Hebrew nation (Judea), did not rely upon maritime trade alone. He either built, or more probably simply fortified, Baalbec and Palmyra (the latter especially) as caravan stations for the land commerce with eastern and southeastern Asia. At the same time, it is clear that trade was carried on between Babylon and the Syrian cities. As a general rule it may be stated that in all cities where the markets are found to have been held outside the gates, the trade has depended upon caravans. No inland city could flourish in the way of trade that was not periodically visited by trading caravans. At the present day, as visitors to Cairo know, an extended commerce is kept up with the interior of Africa by means of caravans. BY THE REV. H. R. HAWEIS, M.A. HEART that knowest thine own pain, Sleep, sleep, but sorrow waketh; Weary heart and weary brain, Peace thy pillow still forsaketh, Hidden doubts and hidden fears, Bitter tears, bitter tears. I would lay my burden down, Sleep, sleep, but sorrow waketh, Leave the cross and find the crown, Where the heart no longer acheth, Where the weary are at rest, Ever blest, ever blest. But if I am still to strive, Sleep, sleep, but sorrow waketh, Strengthen, Saviour, and forgive One whom sin and frailty maketh All unworthy of thy love, Far above, far above. plain of some discourtesy on the part of posterity. We have abundant knowledge of them who led at Actium. Of the hero of Trafalgar English pens have not failed to register the minutest particulars, which English minds still receive with almost the devotion due to sacred writings; but somehow English curiosity concerning the life of him who led the Christian fleets at Lepanto and broke the power of the dreaded Turk has, until lately, been pa tient. Looking into Maunder's "Universal Biography," we find under the word Austrea the following notice: "D. Juan, a Spanish admiral, born in 1545; remembered as the conqueror of the Turks at Lepanto." A scant account this of a man From Blackwood's Magazine. THE HERO OF LEPANTO AND HIS TIMES. NOTWITHSTANDING the marked leaning of the literary world towards biographies during the present century, our English writers had let 1900 come wellnigh upon them without their presenting us with a life of the hero of Lepanto. Now that the void has been ably filled, it is easy to perceive after the event what a fruitful field it was which was left for so long unworked. For it is not only as a conqueror and a prominent historical figure that Don John of Austria interests us. His career was run when the ten centuries of darkness had just closed; and the actions and circumstances of it apart from wars, politics, and religions are admira- who took a prominent part in the most bly illustrative of the social and moral important European affairs of his generacondition of that attractive period. The tion; whose praise was hymned by poets curtain was already falling on the eld of and told out by orators and authors far and fable, tradition, and twilight chronicle near; who was without co-rival when he came upon the scene; and attending his few but eventful days appeared the dayspring of history, the dawn of the arts, the renaissance of poetry with its civilizing influence. At the same time there lay upon Europe enough of Middle Age shadow to prolong the waning empire of those cherished unrealities which are the province of romance, and which lend such delicious enchantment to days of old. A figure better worth exhibiting faithfully and particularly is not to be lighted on at every epoch. There were, no doubt, sufficient rea sons why the writing of the life of this illustrious personage by a British author was postponed; and one of these probably was, that the great historical events of which he was a great part have been amply recounted to us. But who, after feeding full of the stories of heroic achievements and of events big with the future of nations and races, can rise from his study without a yearning to know the personal story of one whose appearances in the great tableaux of the past have created such thrilling emotion? One of our foremost poets names in the same line, Actium, Lepanto, fatal Trafalgar ! If these sea-fights deserve to be ranked together, one of them certainly may com The glass of fashion and the mould of form, to whom the vicar of Christ thought it was We may say then, without fear of contradiction, that Sir William Stirling-Maxwell desired a good work when he set himself "to write unto us in order" the chief events of the life of the distinguished commander, Don John of Austria.* With what degree of success he achieved his purpose these pages are intended to discover in some sort. Our readers will find, as we think, that the author defined correctly the scope of his task, that he has made the career of his subject the trunk line of his story; but that he has not hesitated to diverge from it judiciously at intervals, that he may place beside us, as we go along, pictures illustrative of the manners and customs of the time, and lucid descriptions of means and appli ances which have long been obsolete. The work before us is the product of much learning and research, of which we are little able and little disposed to consti Don John of Austria; or Passages from the History of the Sixteenth Century, 1547-1578. By the late Sir William Stirling-Maxweil, Bart. London: Long mans, Green, & Co. |