Excerpt from The British and Foreign Medico-Chirurgical Review, or Quarterly Journal of Practical Medicine and Surgery, Vol. 37: January-April, 1866

Within the last few years the entirely lay character and manage ment of British hospitals has, in some degree, been broken down by the introduction into several of their number of ladies and others trained as nurses, and at the same time members of private associations, banded together by religious ties, amenable to particular rules, and governed by a responsible head. In Dublin, the establishment of the Mater Misericordim hos pital by the Sisters of Charity, is an instance of a revival of the ancient connexion between the convent and the house for the sick poor. The prevailing tendency of the present time in England seems to be to re-invoke the religious element in the nursing of the sick, both in public and in private the conviction obtaining, and being supported also by experience (now that pre judices are becoming weaker), that nursing is more efficient and humane when carried out under religious sanction by individuals devoted to it as a work of love and mercy.

In the above remarks credit has been taken for the influence of that primary principle of Christianity - charity, in the insti tution of receptacles for the nurture and tending of the sick poor; and, so far as that principle has operated, Christianity may be fairly deemed instrumental in the establishment of hos pitals. Yet there is no question that, prior to the dawn of Christianity, institutions for the benefit of the sick were to be found in every country that had attained the higher degrees of civilization then existing. Wherever the religion of Greece and Rome extended temples arose dedicated to Esculapius, and health-giving fountains were discovered and consecrated to Hygeia, to which sick folk might resort, and where they might receive aid and advice from the attendant priests and ministers. Certain Observances and ceremonies were to be gone through, which, though identified with religion, were at the same time calculated to benefit the health, being derived undoubtedly in a great measure from'the teachings of experience. Indeed, much knowledge of disease must have been acquired by the temple attendants, both from their own observation of the applicants for relief and from the records of former cases, which were, as we know, preserved; and, besides this, their interests were more or less identified with the reputation and success of the sacred place they served.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.