Page:A short history of nursing - Lavinia L Dock (1920).djvu/80

64 64 A Short History of Nursing medical rounds and the "standing at attention'* of the nurses and junior medical men, have come down to us from the military orders. There is also much in their gradual promotion which suggests our training school, though the probationary sys- tem itself dates back to the earlier monastic orders. The Teutonic Knights were founded in 1191 under similar circumstances and on much the same Teutonic ^^^^ ^^e St. John's order. Their Knights history, too, is the same, though on a less extended scale, for their branches only flourished in the Teutonic countries. On the whole their nursing service was not so excellent as that of St. John. The Knights of St. Lazarus specialized in the care of lepers. Tradition carries their origin far Knights back, at least to the days of St. Basil, of but their definite organization dates St. Lazarus f^^^ ^^le first crusades. Because of the peculiar exactions of the problem of leprosy the Knights of St. Lazarus had two divisions, the warriors and the hospitallers. There was a sister- hood of St. Lazarus for work amongst women. The order of St. Lazarus had less dazzle of military pomp and glory than the other two nursing orders, but a far more sacrificial task in its nursing of leprosy and its struggle with the social conditions