Nurses have a very hard life, and almost all women who work are apt to belong to the overworked portion of the community. That they should combine in any way that is possible, for their own advantage and for the maintenance of their old age, is very much to be desired. But the public should never for one moment forget that nursing, which began in devotion and forgetfulness of self, as a vocation, has now become, in the most acknowledged sense of the word, a profession and an employment for women, depriving them of the leisure and pleasure belonging to their youth-that leisure and pleasure which justified Scott's description of woman as 'uncertain, coy, and hard to please,'and the want of which certainly also takes from them the right to consider themselves, or even the power to be,'ministering angels.'

What is done for duty and money can never be the same offering as what is done for love and devotion. The public only are to blame if they think a strong young woman ceases to be a human being because she works hard and wears a nurse's dress. It is of distinct importance that in the case of choosing a nurse for a husband, brother, or son, a woman should feel the responsibility of the situation, and not take the first nurse that turns up at an institution. The selecting of a nurse should most certainly not be left to chance. The nurse should be suitable for the case from the point of view of the family as well as that of the doctor. Why should we expose two human beings under our charge to temptations which we should not sanction under any of the other circumstances of life ? Convalescence ought to be a time of rest both for mind and body, not a time that is needlessly prolonged for the sake of foolish and unworthy flirtation, which is no more sanctioned by the higher members of the profession than is flirtation between a doctor and his patient. The accusations that just lately have been showered on the nurses, they deserve, it seems to me, no more than any other class of young women who share our common human nature. The blame rests with those who select the nurse-first the matron of the hospital or institution, and then the person who chooses her for the individual case.

The commonest of our national faults, and one which affects all our health regulations, is surely that we sanction the obvious causes of a situation, and then are surprised and grumble at their inevitable consequences. It is not so much a question of morality as of mere worldly common-sense and expediency. The laws which should regulate such a new departure are not yet formed-nursing, according to our modern ideas, being scarcely a quarter of a century old. As long as the world lasts and women are women, give them certain circumstances and a sufficient temptation, and nothing will keep them straight. Some women, too, take to nursing because early trouble has made other openings difficult for them. Under those circumstances we meet the most dangerous type of woman that exists; the world has turned against her, and thereby caused her to become hard and bad, and the enemy of society-the type that crushes, by all the means in her power, any other woman who consciously or unconsciously crosses the path of her conquest. Few people seem to consider that the training of a nurse is more hardening, and more likely to unsex a woman, than the training of an actress. At any rate, it is impossible to go through it without becoming very much better or very much worse than the ordinary woman. In France they understand human nature better than we do, and would never dream of allowing our system of nursing. Nurses in Paris are, I believe, most difficult to get. We want more regulations and more judicious assistance from public opinion. The French want an increased staff of nurses who are well conducted and not too young, to supplement the devoted, high-minded, deeply religious class of women who can alone join the Sisterhoods, as they apparently are insufficient in number. Time, the greatest adjuster of all human difficulties, will settle these matters. What concerns us is that no turn of fortune's wheel should crush and injure ourselves or those belonging to us; and what matters now is that ordinary knowledge and common-sense on the subject of health should be brought to bear by every woman responsible in any way for the well-being of others, and especially of the young. Public opinion, I am glad to say, does not forgive a mother's neglect of her children's physical condition; and the condemnation is severe when a boy, after all his work and passing his hard examinations, is plucked in the medical examination for some slight physical defect-it may be nothing worse than neglected corns or a crooked toe-which with ordinary care in childhood or a slight operation might have been entirely cured. Is it stinginess, or is it idleness, or is it ignorance, or is it mere selfishness and a dislike to acknowledge delicacy in their own children, or a half-conscientious repudiation of responsibility and a blind trust in Providence, that makes so many parents allow life-long misery and suffering to come upon their children just for the want of a little care and study of the ordinary rules of health, and of the watchful eye which is given by every hunting man to his horse ?

One word more I must add about convalescence. With the young and the healthy it is a time of hope and even happiness, in spite of mourning over the lost muscles and strength, and the irritating tyrannies of the sickroom. But in long, chronic, hopeless illness modern nursing, with all its real advantages, becomes an active daily trial, only to be borne patiently from the same feeling that makes all work and all trials bearable-namely, for the time being, doing the disagreeable for the sake of the ultimate good. It is our only method of earning our daily bread by the sweat of our brow, the old golden rule of life, which in all the forms it takes is still the one that convinces us that life is worth living, if not for ourselves, at any rate to continue our presence here for the sake of those who dearly wish to keep us. And so all the trials and fatigues of the three hours' nurse's rule in the sick-room in the morning have to be gone through as patiently and cheerfully as is possible. But he or she can afterwards sink exhausted on the sofa or bed, and can indeed say with the pride that belongs to each one of us in our tiny sphere, 'I, too, have not been idle-I, too, have done my best for those who are dear to me' But it is weary work, and for the very weak they can only feel how very much happier it would be to be left alone and lie still and unbothered, instead of feeling more tired than after a hard day's hunting.

For those who wish to learn, or those who are going abroad or to live in out-of-the-way places, and for those who do not care to have a doctor always in their house, I will name a few books written for the public by medical men and women of distinction and of great experience, and who are in no sense of the word quacks. The great difference, so far as I can see, between the books of medical men and those of so-called quacks, is that the latter have absolute faith in their remedies, and use almost the identical old miraculous words, 'Wash and be clean'-and this really often answers-while the books written by doctors employ a much more cautious language. To an immense number of human beings the narrow and forcible phraseology has great attractions, and goes a long way in affecting the nerves and mind, which are undoubted and powerful factors in all cures. Where disease is advanced and real, is it not admitted by all systems that alleviation, not cure, is all that is possible ? The simulation of disease is often merely the result of shattered or over-stimulated nerves. I fancy the medical books come near the truth when they suggest that an immense number of remedies and different treatments may all do good under different circumstances. In my opinion the cause of a vast amount of the bad health of the present day is owing to the number of drugs that people take-partly, at first, by order of the doctor and continued afterwards, and still more from the taking of quack medicines. When a doctor comes to the house, he should be given every chance, and obeyed in all he says; but when he is dismissed, his medicines should go with him, and all amateur doctoring should be of the simplest kind-abstinence first and foremost, and various applications of hot and cold water. One of our great physicians two or three years ago, in his opening address to his hospital pupils, said that seventy per cent. of the patients in a great London hospital (think what that means !) would not be there if they were teetotalers and vegetarians; and this statement passed unnoticed in all the daily papers in which the address was reported. If doctors could convince their patients of this, I fear their profession would be a less lucrative one, and that the health of the community would be far better-at any rate, fewer of the leisured moneyed classes would have to go to German watering-places, homoeopathists, and quacks.

It is quite a latter-day thing for doctors to talk in this way about abstinence in health, but I shall never forget what I owe to an old-fashioned country doctor, who told me, whenever my children were ailing, to knock off at once all animal food-meat, soup, and even milk. Later in my life, I remember it was a favourite saying of Sir William Gull's: 'First get your patient hungry, and then keep him so.'

The first book I recommend is called 'On Slight Ailments and on Treating Disease,'by Lionel Beale. This is a collection of lectures delivered at King's College, London, on the principles and practice of medicine. If the book has a fault, it is that it is too comprehensive and medical to suit the palate of the ordinary amateur. The next contains the wisdom of the serpent and the simplicity of the dove, and has the attractive title of 'A Plea for a Simpler Life,'by George S. Keith, a well-known Edinburgh doctor. This little book is short, clear, and wise.