zealous in furthering the interests of the great cause which they nave undertaken.

With so large an army o. Christians marching against all that is wrong, and toward everything right, we can thank God for these willing volunteers in the Young Woman's Christian Temperance Union.

CHAPTER XXXVII.

HOSPITALS.

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women.

EDITORIAL.

EGARDING women's work in connection with the hospitals of America I have not been able to procure definite statistics. From the article, "Care of the Sick," by Ednah Dow Cheney, in "Woman's Work in America," I have gathered the following items: "New York Infirmary, established in 1857; Women's Hospital, 1860; New England Hospital for Women and Children, 1862; Chicago Hospital for Women and Children, 1865; Pacific Dispensary and Hospital for Women and Children; Ohio Hospital, Northwestern Hospital, Minneapolis; all provide clinical instruction for The hospital in Chicago, like other promising children of the East, transplanted to the West, has outgrown its parents, and is now the largest institution of its kind in this country, and probably in the world. It has eighty beds." Among other hospitals where women are admitted as professors and students, may be mentioned the Massachusetts Homeopathic Hospital, St. Luke's Hospital Association in Jacksonville, Fla. The Women's Homeopathic Association of Pennsylvania, the Philadelphia Home for Incurables, the Home of Mercy, in Pittsfield, Mass., and the Fletcher Hospital in Burlington, Vt., which was planned and endowed by Miss Mary Fletcher.

In the report of the Government Bureau of Education, in 1889, the number of training schools for nurses in the United States, was stated as 33, number of instructors, 260, number of pupils, 1,248, of which 956 were women.

Regarding the societies formed by women for supplying nurses to the sick poor, the following statement was taken from "Woman's Work in America:"

In New York City the Woman's Branch of the New York City Mission, sends out five nurses among the poor. These nurses have all had a full course of training at some hospital. This mission claims to be the first society in America to have introduced trained nurses in its work.

"The Department of United Relief Works of the Society of Ethical Culture, organized in 1879, furnishes nurses to Demilt and New York Dispensaries. During the year 1888-1889, these nurses paid on an average 2,800 visits to about 700 patients, including all diseases, even of the most infectious nature, and quite irrespective of creed and nationality.

"The Mt. Sinai Training School, supplies, at its own expense (being at present a separate organization from the hospital) from among its nurses not yet graduated, but experienced in hospital training, a nurse who administers to the sick irrespective of creed, nationality, or disease, under the direction of physicians.' The order of deaconesses, in the various cities, also act in the capacity of

nurse.

One has only to inquire into the work of women in any one of the large cities of the United States, in connection with charitable and Christian institutions to form a very correct estimate of the important part taken by women in the organization and support of these philanthropic enterprises. In the hospitals, orphan asylums, day nurseries, retreats, various homes, for the aged, and like benevolent philanthropies, every city can bear its vivid testimony to the efficient labors of women. If one could secure the statistics of the many munificent gifts of women to these institutions, the generous sum would doubtless be surprising. Now and then some item is recorded, such as the contribution of Miss Mary Elizabeth Garrett of Baltimore, to John Hopkins' University, whose donation has reached the figure of $354,764.50, which makes up the amount of $500,000 needed to open the medical school, to which women shall be admitted on equal terms with men.

It is estimated that in the United States the annual expenditure for public charitable institutions is fully $125,000,000, and not less than $500,000,000 is invested in buildings and equipments for carrying on the work of these institutions. In this estimate no account is taken

of penitentiaries and jails. It is estimated that church property in the United States, which in 1850 amounted to $87,000,000 in 1890 reached $631,000,000. We give these figures not as items regarding women's special work, but to show the grand advance of Christian and philanthropic institutions in the United States.

The following account of the founding of several of the New York hospitals has been kindly furnished by Miss Helen Evertson Smith, of Brooklyn:

"The earliest hospital in America for women is the "New York Asylum for Lying-in-Women," established in 1822, incorporated in 1829, and still continuing its good work at No. 139 Second Avenue, New York City.

We have not been able to learn the names of its founders, but they were all women, and the Asylum has always been governed solely by women. It was designed for poor married women, who often suffer terribly in their homes for want of proper comforts, care, and medical attendance. The hospital is small, but during its 69 years of life, it has had more than 5,500 cases of confinement within its walls, and extended medical service and other aid to nearly 20,000 out-of-door

cases.

"Another hospital along the same line, but with broader aims, is the 'Sloane Maternity Hospital,' at the corner of 59th street and Amsterdam avenue. This hospital was built by Mr. William D. Sloane, at a cost of $225,000 and endowed by his wife-a daughter of Mr. William H. Vanderbilt-with a fund of $250,000 which enables all of its forty-five beds to be free. In the five years of its existence, nearly 2500 confinements have taken place within its walls, and only thirteen deaths have occurred from all causes. It is a feature of this institution that no questions shall be asked of any who seek its aid.

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"But the crowning glory of the work of American women in connection with hospitals, is the 'Woman's Hospital in the State of New York.' Not only was it the first public hospital established in the world solely for the diseases peculiar to women, but had it not been for the labors and influence of a few noble women, its first breath could never have been drawn. To relate the struggles of the late Dr. J. Marion Sims-whose memory all women should cherish

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-before he obtained the aid of the women referred to, would be foreign to our purpose. Neither can we even mention the names of many of the women who made success possible to him. Only one of the first board of managers is now living-Mrs. Charles Abernethy, then Mrs. Elisha Peck. She has continued tirelessly active in the work during all the years of bad and good fortune, since 1855. She now rejoices in seeing the hospital, which she once knew to be often in want of money to provide the daily meals for its patients and officers, one of the most nobly endowed of similar institutions.

"The two other women whose zeal and influence were of the highest importance to the embryo hospital, were Mrs. Thomas C. Doremus, a full sketch of whom will be found elsewhere, and Mrs. David Cadwise. In many characteristics these women differed widely, but they felt the highest esteem for each other, and both were mentally and physically magnificent women even to their latest days. While Mrs. Doremus was in the thick of the battle, looking after the housekeeping, sometimes putting her own hands to needed work, and encouraging both doctors and patients, Mrs. Cadwise was equally busy gathering in the munitions of war, beating the woods for recruits and fairly compelling the money of the rich, and the influence of the powerful. Not only was she principal spokesman of committees appointed to wait upon the aldermen of the city of New York, but she privately visited each at his own residence, that she might secure his pledge to vote for the donation of the site on which the hospital now stands-then the Potter's Field. After this it was necessary to secure the consent of the Legislature to permit New York City to give away its own land. Again and again did Mrs. Cadwise, then a woman of sixty years of age, and feeble, go with other ladies to Albany to obtain this consent. A gentleman who was a member of the Assembly during this time, has said that 'while other women could be refused or put off, the tactics of Mrs. Cadwise were irresistible. Her combined beauty and eloquence, and the magnetic warmth of her generous sympathy would have moved a stone.'

"Mrs. Cadwise was a daughter of Gilbert R. Livingston of Red Hook, N. Y. Connected by birth and marriage with all those of highest social position in New York City, and by sympathy and