Page:A short history of nursing - Lavinia L Dock (1920).djvu/26

10 family whose sole other alternative was "governessing, " or needlework.

Most intimately have medicine and nursing always been allied. Indeed in dim prehistoric ages they were, so far as we can discern, long one and the same. They were probably at first united in the person of the wise old crones who learned to gather the roots, leaves, and grasses of the forest. As time went on two special branches of the art diverged—the medicine-giver and the care-taker. Though their spheres may, at times, have merged into one another, yet mainly the nurse (not always, but usually a woman) has been the one who personally cared for the sick and helpless patient, attended to his food and other physical needs, gave solace and comfort according to the prevailing degree of mentaHty or instinct, learned to apply simple remedies for the relief of pain, and was selected to assist the physician in his treatments. The physician has been the one who was called in; whose wisdom has been relied on to find out the cause of illness, to prescribe treatment, to perform operations, or to conduct the ceremonials of magic or of religion to banish the evil elements that caused the crisis. With the progress of the medical art the physician's sphere also subdivided, and we find