Page:A short history of nursing - Lavinia L Dock (1920).djvu/291

275 Nursing in other Countries 275 Fifty years ago nursing was entirely in the hands of Catholic and Protestant religious orders. Among the latter Deaconess Mother- ,, Holland houses became numerous, and were affiliated with Kaisers werth. Deaconesses carried on a great deal of district nursing, which has always been well attended to in Holland. Later, different volunteer societies organized nursing on a secular but humanitarian basis, especially to meet the needs of private duty. The large city hospitals had a class of old time attendants not far removed from the Gamp type. The modern reform was led by Miss Reynvaan, at the Wilhelmina hospital in the early 1890's. She was a gentlewoman of the true type, and her example brought about the appointment of women of cultured and fine per- sonalities as Matrons of the big hospitals. Through their influence, the hospital staffs were selected from a desirable personnel and certain very great improvements in teaching and training were brought about. The hospital directors delegated their authority most sparingly, so sparingly, indeed, that women possessing every gift needed for leadership, in- cluding that intangible one called "womanliness, " Were unable to carry their progressive ideas beyond a fixed and narrow limit. Their subordination to