Page:A short history of nursing - Lavinia L Dock (1920).djvu/385

369 The Past and Future 369 needs that none of these can satisfy. We must lean also upon the soul and spirit of the place to sustain and strengthen him. Such a soul and spirit many- generations of workers — nurses, doctors, and others — have constantly striven to keep alive in our hospitals. " Later speaking of the problems in nursing still to be solved. Miss Nutting says: "Perhaps some of you may ultimately be in a position to contribute to such studies and to help in solving such problems, but you must first give yourselves whole-heartedly to the work that lies in these institutions and do it from the ground up. No understanding of the situation can be reached without full and accurate knowledge born of inti- mate experience. The nurses of the present gen- eration with meagre preparation and few advan- tages have brought their beloved profession to the point where it now stands. They have carried the burden and the heat of the day and I hereby pay them my humble meed of affectionate respect and admiration for their achievements. If the nurses of the future work as loyally, as courageously, and as steadfastly, if they hold before them the vision of what nursing should be as faithfully as their sisters of the past have done, nursing will indeed come into her own. " 24