Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 7.djvu/406

 362 THE WINTER TROUBLES. CHAP, band of Sisters and nurses, she steadfastly re- VT ' mained at their head, and, along with them, entered at once upon what may be soberly called an appalling task — the task of ' nursing ' in hospitals not only overcrowded with sufferers, but painfully, grievously wanting in most of the conditions essential to all good hospital manage- ment. The Sisters and salaried nurses who placed themselves under this guidance were in all forty- six ; and Miss Stanley, with great spirit and energy, brought the aid of her whole reinforce- ment — at first to the Naval Hospital newly founded at Therapia under the auspices of our Embassy, and afterwards to another establish- Tiie )in.spite.i ment — to that fated hospital at Kullali, in which, " '" ' as we saw, at one time a fearful mortality raged. Not regarding her mission as one that needs should aim loftily at the reformation of the hos- pital management. Miss Stanley submitted her- self for guidance to the medical officers, saying : — ' What do you wish us to do ? ' The officers wisely determined that they would not allow the gentle women to exhaust their power of doing good by undertaking those kinds of work that might be as well or better performed by men, and their answer was to this effect : — ' The work ' that in surgical cases has been commonly done ' by our dressers will be performed by them,' as ' before, under our orders.(^) What we ask of ' medicines and the nourishment ordered for ' them, and we know wc can trust that you will
 * you is that you will see the men take the