Page:McCosh, John - Advice to Officers in India (1856).djvu/257

 that she was born and bred to, roughing it in a ward of a public hospital, and superintending the wants of the sick and wounded soldier at Balaclava, and gladly bear testimony to the intrinsic value of such ministration.

"It is not in hospitals alone, however, that nursing is required. India,of all countries in the world, must demand a band of trained nurses for private houses. In England disease is mild, and every man, but the most solitary, possesses kind and earnest private relations to soothe his sufferings in the dark hour. What a contrast India presents is only too well known to those who have experienced the miseries of the bachelor's sick room, where solitude the most profound prevails, only disturbed by the occasional hasty visits of the physician, whose skill is rendered half nugatory by the impossibility of intrusting any one with the administration of medicine, or if the hour of death approach, by the vulture-like crowding of the servants to seize what booty they can lay their hands on. Impressed by these reflections we think it is much to be regretted that Mr. Hume did not embody his opinion in an amendment. We are quite sure that the measure we support would be equally honourable to Miss Nightingale, who might be invited to lay down her own laws, and