Page:A short history of nursing - Lavinia L Dock (1920).djvu/19

Rh of nursing has always been greatly affected by prevalent standards of humanity. Higher degrees of consideration for those who are helpless or oppressed, kindliness and sympathy for the unfortunate and for those who suffer, tolerance for those of differing religion, race, colour, etc.—all tend to promote activities like nursing which are primarily humanitarian.

Nursing is a larger development of the mother-care of the young, and must have co-existed with this care from the earliest time. The word itself comes from the word meaning "to nourish." In its broadest meaning it covers not only the care of the sick, the aged, the helpless, and the handicapped, but the promotion of health and vigour in those who are well, especially the young, growing creatures on whom the future of the race depends. Thus in the primal significance of the title "nurse" there is the idea of cherishing, treasuring, and building up perfect health, as well as that of relieving illness, and this latent idea must always have prompted some crude effort toward preventive and hygienic care in nursing work, though only in the most recent years has this complete aspect of the nurse's work come to be generally recognized.

During long periods, when the women of a