Page:Rural Hygiene - Florence Nightingale.pdf/26

 local committee makes arrangements for the lectures by the Health Missioner and for receiving her.

(5) The Health Missioner works under the supervision of the Medical Officer of Health, who as often as possible introduces her to the village in the first instance; and he makes it his business to inquire into the practical results of her work.

(6) The lectures to the cottage mothers are delivered in simple, homely language.

But (7) the lecture is only the beginning of the work, the prelude to it. The real work is when, having made friends with the cottage mothers, and being invited by them to their own homes, every one of whom and every one of which differs from every other, the Health Missioner practically shows the cottage mother there, in the bedroom, in the kitchen and parlour, in the backyard and garden, in washing everybody's skin clean, in clothing and food—aided by the cottage mothers, who alone can tell her how to make what she has taught practicable. They teach her as much as she teaches them. The mothers should help her by asking questions and by relating their own experiences. And, in a lecture, the Missioner should welcome such questions, even if asked rudely. If she snubs them, it is all over with her usefulness.

The eye and hand must be trained to see and deal with dangers to health. "No practical knowledge is possible on any subject without the meeting of the senses with the material."

(8) After a Health Missioner has become settled in a district, she will then be able to receive a Probationer,