Page:A short history of nursing - Lavinia L Dock (1920).djvu/370

354 354 A Short History of Nursing proud of their traditions and to treasure them as a precious heritage, and constant reminder of the history of the past. We find them, not only in the character and conduct of nurses themselves, but in the uniform, in the system of training, in hospi- tal etiquette, and in all the observances of hospital life. Coming originally from widely different sources they have been woven through years and sometimes centuries of experience into the very stuff of which nursing is made, and now stand as an embodiment of what we believe the spirit of nursing to be. Many of our traditions go back to the home, where our earliest prototype the "mother-nurse" set the first example of tenderness and Influence of the devotion to the sick and helpless. "mother" From here came also the spirit and spirit practice of hospitality which lies back of all hospital work, and the housewifely spirit which has made of those institutions for the sick, clean, orderly, and attractive homes. From the religious orders we have taken many of our highest ethical and moral principles. The Influence of emphasis which they laid on purity the religious and integrity of character, and the example they set of disinterested kind- liness and devotion to all classes and conditions