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718 
 
 Health in the Hospital. 
 
 [December, 
 
 — an' outside, justice. It 's a narrer 
 showin', I 'm thinkin'." 
 
 " My father was outside," said Holmes, 
 some old bitterness rising up in his tone, 
 his gray eye lighting with some unre- 
 venged wrong. 
 
 Polston did not speak for a moment. 
 
 " Dunnot bear malice agin her. They're 
 dead, now. It was n't left fur her to judge 
 him out yonder. Yoh 've yer father's 
 eyes, Stephen, 'times. Hungry, pitiful, 
 like women's. His got desper't' 't th' 
 last. Drunk hard,— died of 't, yoh know. 
 But she killed him, — th' sin was writ 
 down fur her. Never was a boy I loved 
 like him, when we was boys." 
 
 There was a short silence. 
 
 " Yoh 're like yer mother," said Polston, 
 striving for a lighter tone. "Here," — 
 motioning to the heavy iron jaws. " She 
 never — let go. Somehow, too, she 'd 
 the law on her side in outward show- 
 in', an' th' right. But I hated religion, 
 knowin' her. Well, ther' 's a day of mak- 
 in' things clear, comin'." 
 
 They had reached the corner now, 
 and Polston turned down the lane. 
 
 "Yoh '11 think o' Yare's case?" he 
 said. 
 
 " Yes. •But how can I help it," 
 Holmes said, lightly, " if I am like my 
 mother here ? " — putting his hand to his 
 mouth. 
 
 " God help us, how can yoh ? It 's 
 harrd to think father and mother leave 
 
 their souls fightin' in their childern, cos 
 th' love was wantin' to make them one 
 here." 
 
 Something glittered along the street as 
 he spoke ; the silver mountings of a low- 
 hung phaeton drawn by a pair of Mex- 
 ican ponies. One or two gentlemen on 
 horseback were alongside, attendant on a 
 lady within. She turned her fair face, 
 and pale, greedy eyes, as she passed, and 
 lifted her hand languidly in recognition 
 of Holmes. Polston's face colored. 
 
 "I 've heered," he said, holding out 
 his grimy hand. " I wish yoh well, 
 Stephen, boy. So '11 the old 'oman. 
 Yoh '11 come an' see us, soon ? Ye 'r' look- 
 in' fagged, an' yer eyes is gettin' more like 
 yer father's. I 'm glad things is takin' 
 a good turn with yoh ; an' yoh '11 never 
 be like him, starvin' fur th' kind wured, 
 an' havin' to die without it. I 'm glad 
 yoh 've got true love. She 'd a fair face, 
 I think. I wish yoh well, Stephen." 
 
 Holmes shook the grimy hand, and then 
 stood a moment looking back to the mill, 
 from which the hands were just coming, 
 and then down at the phaeton moving 
 idly down the road. How cold it was 
 growing ! People passing by had a sick- 
 ly look, as if they were struck by the 
 plague. He pushed the damp hair back, 
 wiping his forehead, with another glance 
 at the mill- women coming out of the gate, 
 and then followed the phaeton down the 
 hill. 
 
 HEALTH IN THE HOSPITAL. 
 
 In preparing to do the duty of society 
 towards the wounded or sick soldier, the 
 first consideration is, What is a Military 
 Hospital ? No two nations seem to have 
 answered this question in the same way ; 
 yet it is a point of the first importance to 
 them all. 
 
 When England went to war last time, 
 after a peace of forty years, the only idea 
 in the minds of her military surgeons was 
 
 of Regimental Hospitals. There was to 
 be a place provided as an infirmary for a 
 certain number of soldiers ; a certain num- 
 ber of orderlies were to be appointed as 
 nurses ; and the regimental doctor and 
 hospital-sergeant were to have the charge 
 of the inmates. In each of these Regi- 
 mental Hospitals there might be patients 
 ill of a great variety of disorders, from 
 the gravest to the lightest, all to be treat- 
 
1861.] 
 
 Health in the Hospital. 
 
 719 
 
 ed by the same doctor or doctors. These 
 doctors had to make out statements of all 
 the diets, as well as all the medicines re- 
 quired by their patients, and send in their 
 requisitions ; and it might be said that ar- 
 rangements had to be separately made for 
 every individual patient in the whole ar- 
 my. The doctors went to work each in 
 his own way, even in the case of epidem- 
 ics. There was no knowing, except by 
 guess, what diseases were the most to be 
 apprehended in particular places or cir- 
 cumstances ; nor what remarkable phe- 
 nomena of disease were showing them- 
 selves on any extended scale ; nor what 
 improvements could be suggested in the 
 treatment. There was no possibility of 
 such systematic cleanliness and such ab- 
 solute regularity of management as can 
 be secured by organization on a large 
 scale. Yet the medical officers preferred 
 the plan to any other. One plea was, that 
 the medical officers and the patients were 
 acquainted with and attached to each oth- 
 er : and this was very true. Another con- 
 sideration was, that each surgeon liked 
 to have his field of duty to himself, and 
 found it an advantage to have a large 
 variety of ailments to treat, to the con- 
 stant improvement of his experience. 
 They said that doctors and patients and 
 nurses all liked the Regimental Hospi- 
 tal best, and this was clear proof that it 
 was the best. They could at that time 
 say also, that every soldier and every 
 doctor had a horror of General Hospi- 
 tals, where the mortality was so exces- 
 sive during the Peninsular War that be- 
 ing carried to the General Hospital was 
 considered the same thinw as being sen- 
 tenced to death. 
 
 Such being the state of opinion and 
 feeling in the profession, it naturally hap- 
 pened that British army-surgeons stuck 
 to their Regimental Hospitals as long as 
 they could, and, when compelled to co- 
 operate in a General Hospital, made the 
 institution as like as possible to a group 
 of Regimental Hospitals, — resisting all 
 effective organization, and baffling all the 
 aims of the larger institution. 
 
 In busy times, no two Regimental Hos- 
 
 pitals were alike in their management, 
 because the scheme was not capable of 
 expansion. The surgeon and his hospi- 
 tal-sergeant managed everything. The 
 surgeon saw and treated the cases, and 
 made out his lists of articles wanted. It 
 was his proper business to keep the books, 
 — to record the admissions, and make the 
 returns, and keep the accounts, and post 
 up all the documents: but professional 
 men do not like this sort of woik, when 
 they want to be treating disease ; and the 
 books were too often turned over to the 
 hospital-sergeant. His indispensable busi- 
 ness was to superintend the wards, and 
 the attendance on the patients, the giving 
 them their medicines, etc., which most of 
 us would think enough for one man : but 
 he had besides to keep up the military 
 discipline in the establishment, — to pre- 
 pare the materials for the surgeon's duty 
 at the desk, — to take charge of all the 
 orders for the diet of all the patients, and 
 see them fulfilled, — to keep the record 
 of all the provisions ordered and used in 
 every department, — and to take charge 
 of the washing, the hospital stores, the fur- 
 niture, the surgery, and the dispensary. 
 In short, the hospital-sergeant had to be 
 at once ward-master, steward, dispenser, 
 sergeant, clerk, and purveyor ; and, as 
 no man can be a six-sided official, more 
 or fewer of his duties were deputed to 
 the orderly, or to anybody within call. 
 Nobody could dispute the superior econ- 
 omy and comfort of having a concentra- 
 tion of patients arranged in the wards 
 according to their ailments, with a gen- 
 eral kitchen, a general laundry, a dispen- 
 sary and surgery, and a staff of officials, 
 each with his own distinct business, in- 
 stead of as many jacks-of-all-trades, each 
 doing a little of everything. Yet the ob- 
 stinacy of the fight made by the surgeons 
 for the system of Regimental Hospitals 
 was almost insuperable. Thei-e was no 
 desire on any hand to abolish their hos- 
 pitals, which must always be needed for 
 slight, and also for immediately pressing 
 cases. What was asked of them was to 
 give way when epidemics, or a sudden 
 influx of wounded, or protracted cases 
 
720 
 
 Health in the Hospital. 
 
 [December, 
 
 put a greater strain upon the system than 
 it would bear. 
 
 The French, meantime, had three sorts 
 of hospitals, — the Divisional ones coming 
 between the Regimental and the Gener- 
 al. Only the very slightest cases ever 
 enter their Regimental Hospital; those 
 which may last weeks are referred to 
 the Divisional ; and those which may last 
 months, with prospect of recovery, to the 
 General Hospital. The Sardinian plan 
 was nearly the same. The Russians had 
 Divisional Hospitals at various stations; 
 and all cases were carried to them. 
 
 The Regimental Hospitals are wher- 
 ever the regiments are. The advantage 
 is, that aid can be immediately rendered, 
 — not only in case of wounds, but of chol- 
 era, in which it is desirable to lay a pa- 
 tient down in the nearest bed to which he 
 can be conveyed. The disadvantages are 
 the hap-hazard quality of the site, the ab- 
 sence of quiet and seclusion, and the lia- 
 bility of being near the scene of conflict. 
 These things cause the French to prefer 
 the Divisional Hospital, which, while still 
 within reach, is set farther back from the 
 force, in a picked situation, and managed 
 on a large scale and with nicer exacti- 
 tude. 
 
 The General Hospital is understood to 
 be at the base of oj)erations : and this sup- 
 poses, as a part of its organization, a 
 system of transport, not only good of its 
 kind, but adequate to any demands con- 
 sequent on a great battle, or the spread 
 of an epidemic in the camp. The nearer 
 the hospital is to the active force, the bet- 
 ter, of course ; but there are conditions 
 to be fulfilled first. It must be safe from 
 the enemy. It must be placed in a per- 
 manent station. It must be on a good 
 road, and within immediate reach of mar- 
 kets. It ought also to be on the way 
 home, for the sake of the incurable or 
 the incapacitated who must be sent home. 
 
 In the Regimental Hospital, the sur- 
 geon may be seen going from the man 
 who has lost a finger to a fever patient, — 
 and then to one who has ophthalmia, — 
 passing on to a fellow raving in delirium 
 tremens, — next to whom is a sufferer un- 
 
 der bronchitis, who will not be allowed to 
 go out of doors for weeks to come ; and if 
 half a dozen are brought in with cholera 
 in the course of the day, the oflicials do 
 not know which way to turn. It is possi- 
 ble that the surgeon may be found making 
 starch over the kitchen fire, because there 
 is nobody at hand who understands how 
 to make starched bandages ; or he may 
 be at the desk, casting up columns of fig- 
 ures, or writing returns, when he is ur- 
 gently wanted at the bedside. Such 
 things can hardly happen now ; but they 
 have happened within ten years. The 
 Russians, meantime, would be carrying 
 all manner of patients to one of their hos- 
 pital-stations, — each sufferer to the hos- 
 pital of his own division. The French 
 would leave the men with scratches and 
 slight diarrhoea and delirium tremens in 
 the Regimental Hospital, — would send 
 the fever and bronchitis and scorbutic pa- 
 tients to the Divisional, — and any grave- 
 ly wounded, or rheumatic, or other very 
 long cases to the General Hospital at the 
 base of operations. 
 
 Such arrangements, however, are of no 
 use, if the last be not so organized as to 
 render it fit to supply what the others 
 cannot give, and to answer purposes which 
 the others cannot even propose. 
 
 When doctors and soldiers alike shud- 
 dered at the mention of the General Hos- 
 pital as a necessary institution at or near 
 the seat of war, they were thinking of 
 what they had seen or heard of during 
 the Peninsular Campaigns. There were 
 such infirmaries wherever there was a 
 line of march in Spain ; and they seem- 
 ed to be all alike. Hospital gangrene set 
 in among the wounded, and fever among 
 the sick, so that the soldiers said, " To send 
 a poor fellow to the hospital is to send 
 him to death." Yet there was nothing 
 else to be done ; for it was impossible to 
 treat the seriously sick and wounded at 
 the spot where they fell. During that 
 war, nearly twice the number which com- 
 posed the army passed through the hos- 
 pitals every year ; and of these there 
 were known deaths to the amount of thir- 
 teen thousand five hundred ; and thou- . 
 
1861.] 
 
 Health in the Hospital. 
 
 721 
 
 sands more were never the same men 
 again. When the case was better under- 
 stood, — as during the last year in the 
 Crimea, — the mortality in the hospitals 
 barely exceeded that of the Guards in 
 their barracks at home I Kecovery had 
 become the rule, and death a remarka- 
 ble event. General Hospitals had come 
 to surpass all other means of curing pa- 
 tients, while fulfilling their own pecuHar 
 service to society through new genera- 
 tions. 
 
 What are the functions of General 
 Hospitals, besides curing the sick and 
 wounded ? some readers may ask, who 
 have never particularly attended to the 
 subject. 
 
 The first business of such institutions 
 is undoubtedly to restore as many as pos- 
 sible of the sufferers brought into them : 
 and this includes the duty of bringing in 
 the patients in the most favorable way, 
 receiving them in an orderly ajid quiet 
 manner, doctoring, nursing, feeding, cloth- 
 ing, and cleaning them, keeping their 
 minds composed and cheerful, and their 
 manners creditable, promoting their con- 
 valescence, and dismissing them in a state 
 of comfort as to equipment. This is the 
 first duty, in its many subdivisions. The 
 next is to obviate, as far as possible, 
 future disease in any army. The third 
 grows out of this. It is to improve the 
 science of the existing generation by a 
 full use of the peculiar opportunities of 
 observation afforded by the crop of sick- 
 ness and wounds yielded by an army ia 
 action. To take these in their reverse 
 order. 
 
 There must be much to learn from any 
 great assemblage of sickness, under cir- 
 cumstances which can be fully ascertain- 
 ed, even at home, — and much more in a 
 foreign climate. The medical body of 
 every nation has very imperfect knowl- 
 edge of classes and modifications of dis- 
 eases ; so that one of the strongest desires 
 of the most learned physicians is for an 
 improved classification and constantly im- 
 proving nomenclature of diseases ; and 
 hospital -records afford the most direct 
 way to this knowledge. Thus, while the 
 
 phenomena are frittered away among 
 Regimental or unorganized General Hos- 
 pitals, a well-kept record in each well- 
 organized hospital will do more than all 
 other means to promote the scientific un- 
 derstanding of disease. 
 
 The statistics of disease in armies, the 
 ascertainment of the numbers who sick- 
 en and who die of particular diseases, 
 would save more lives in future genera- 
 tions than can be now appreciated ; but 
 what can the regimental surgeon do to- 
 wards furnishing any trustworthy mate- 
 rials to such an inquiry ? A dozen doc- 
 tors, with each his smattering of patients, 
 can learn and teach but little while they 
 work apart : whereas a regular system 
 of inquiry and record, in action where 
 the sick are brought in in battalions, is 
 the best possible agency. Not only are 
 these objects lost when surgeons are al- 
 lowed to make the great hospital a mere 
 receptacle for a cluster of small and des- 
 ultory hospitals, but the advantages of a 
 broad study of diseases and their treat- 
 ment are lost. Inestimable facts of treat- 
 ment are learned by watching, at the 
 same time and in the same place, a ward 
 full of patients ill of the same disease. 
 People of all countries know this by the 
 special learning which their physicians 
 obtain in large civil hospitals : and the 
 same thing happens in military hospi- 
 tals, with the additional advantage that 
 the information and improved art tend 
 to the special safety of the future soldiery, 
 in whatever climate they may be called 
 on to serve. 
 
 There has long been some general no- 
 tion of the duty of army-surgeons to re- 
 cord what they saw in foreign campaigns ; 
 but no benefit has been reaped till of late. 
 The works of French field-surgeons have 
 long been justly celebrated; but I do not 
 know that in the statistics and the no- 
 menclature of disease they have done 
 much more than others. The English 
 surgeons carried or sent home in 1810 
 a mass of papers about the Walcheren 
 fever, and afterwards of the diseases of 
 the Peninsular force : but the Director- 
 General of the Medical Department con- 
 
722 
 
 Health in the Hospital. 
 
 [December, 
 
 sidered such a bulk of records trouble- 
 some, and ordered them to be burnt ! 
 Such an act will never be perpetrated 
 again : but directors will have a more 
 manageable mass of documents to deal 
 ■with henceforth. AVith a regular system 
 of record, at a central station of observa- 
 tion, much more may be done with much 
 less fatigue to all parties. 
 
 But how is it to be done ? may well 
 be asked. In the hurry and confusion 
 of a war, and amidst the pressure of hun- 
 dreds of new cases in a day, what can 
 the surgeons of the hospital be expected 
 to do for science, or even for the improve- 
 ment of medical and surgical practice ? — 
 The answer is seen in the new arrange- 
 ments in England, where a statistical 
 branch has been established in the Army 
 Medical Department. Of course, no one 
 but the practising surgeon or physician 
 can furnish the pathological facts in each 
 individual case ; but this is what every 
 active and earnest practitioner does al- 
 ways and everywhere, when he sees rea- 
 son for it. His note-book or hospital- 
 journal provides that raw material which 
 the statistical department is to arrange 
 and utilize. The result will be that a 
 flood of light will be cast on matters af- 
 fecting the health and life of soldiers and 
 other men, in regard to which we might 
 Lave gone on groping for centuries among 
 the confusion of regimental records, with- 
 out getting what we wanted. As to the 
 method of proceeding, I may have some- 
 thing to say farther on. Meantime, we 
 must turn to the primary object of the 
 institution of the Military Hospital, — 
 the cure of the wounded and sick of the 
 army. 
 
 In the case of active war, foreign or 
 civil, the General Hospital is usually an 
 extemporized establishment, the build- 
 ing a makeshift, and the arrangements 
 such as the building will admit. In 
 Spain, the British obtained any houses 
 they could get ; and the soldiers were 
 sometimes crowded into half a dozen of 
 them in one town. In the last war, the 
 great buildings at Scutari were engaged 
 three months before they were wanted 
 
 for extensive use ; so that there was 
 plenty of time for making them clean, 
 airy, warm, and commodious, and for stor- 
 ing them with all conveniences. This 
 was not done; and the failure and its 
 consequences afford a lesson by which 
 every people engaged in war should 
 profit. A mere outline of what was not 
 done at Scutari may be an indication of 
 what should be done with all convenient 
 speed elsewhere. 
 
 There was a catgut manufactory close 
 at hand, which filled the neighborhood 
 with stench. Half a dozen dead dogs 
 festered under the windows in the sun ; 
 and a dead horse lay in the aqueduct for 
 six weeks. The drain-pipes within the 
 building were obstructed and had burst, 
 spreading their contents over the floors 
 and walls. The sloping boarded divans 
 in the wards, used for sleeping-places, 
 were found, after the building became 
 crowded, to be a cover for a vast accu- 
 mulation of dead rats, old rags, and the 
 dust of years. Like all large stone build- 
 ings in the East, it was intolerably cold 
 in winter, with its stagnant air, its filthy 
 damps, and its vaultings and chill floors. 
 This wonderful building was very grand- 
 ly reported of to England, for its size 
 and capacity, its imposing character, and 
 so forth ; and the English congratulated 
 themselves on the luck of the wounded 
 in having such a hospital. Yet, in the 
 next January, fourteen hundred and 
 eighty were carried out dead. 
 
 It appears that nobody knew how to 
 go to work. Everybody writes to some- 
 body else to advise them to " observe " ; 
 and there are so many assurances that ev- 
 erybody means to " observe," that there 
 seems to have been no leisure to effect 
 anything. One thinks that this, that, or 
 the other should be attended to ; and an- 
 other states that the matter is under con- 
 sideration. It was some weeks before 
 anybody got so far in definiteness as to 
 propose whitewash. Somebody under- 
 stood that somebody else was intending 
 to have the corridors scoured ; and repre- 
 sentations were to be made to the Turkish 
 authorities about getting the drain -pipes 
 
1861.] 
 
 Health in the Hospital, 
 
 723 
 
 mended. The Turkish authorities wished 
 to employ their own workmen in putting 
 in the stoves ; and on the 18th of Decem- 
 ber the responsible British officer hoped 
 the stoves would be put up immediate- 
 ly, but could not be certain, as Turkish 
 workmen were in question. This was a 
 month after large companies of wounded 
 and sick had been sent in from the seat 
 of war. Even then, nothing had been 
 done for ventilation, or, on any sufficient 
 scale, for putting the poor sufferers com- 
 fortably to bed. 
 
 These things confirm the necessity of a 
 regulated cooperation between the sani- 
 tary, the medical, and the military offi- 
 cers of an army. The sanitary officer 
 should be secure of the services of engi- 
 neers enough to render the hospital, as 
 well as the camp, safely habitable. As 
 soon as any building is taken possession 
 of for a hospital, men and their tools 
 should be at command for exploring the 
 drains and making new ones, — for cov- 
 ering or filling up ditches, — for clearing 
 and purifying the water-courses, and lead- 
 ing in more water, if needed,— for remov- 
 ing all nuisances for a sufficient distance 
 round, — and for improving to the utmost 
 the means of access to the house. There 
 must be ventilating spaces in the roof, 
 and in the upper part of all the wards 
 and passages. Every vaulted space, or 
 other receptacle of stagnant air, should 
 have a current established through it. 
 All decaying wood in the building should 
 be removed, and any portion ingrained 
 with dirt should be planed clean. A 
 due water-supply should be carried up 
 to every story, and provided for the bath- 
 rooms, the wash-houses, and the kitchen. 
 Every edifice in America is likely to be 
 already furnished with means of warmth ; 
 and the soldiers are probably in no dan- 
 ger of shivering over the uncertain prom- 
 ise of stoves on the 18th of December. 
 
 Next comes the consideration of store- 
 places, which can be going forward while 
 busy hands are cleaning every inch of 
 ceiling, walls, floors, and windows within. 
 There must be sheds and stables for the 
 transport service ; and a surgery and 
 
 dispensary planned with a view to the 
 utmost saving of time and trouble, so that 
 medicines and utensils may be within 
 reach and view, and the freest access al- 
 lowed to applicants. The kitchens must 
 have the best stoves and boilers, dressers 
 and scales, and apparatus of every kind 
 that is known to the time ; for more lives 
 depend on perfect food being adminis- 
 tered with absolute punctuality than upon 
 any medical treatment. There must be 
 large and abundant and airy store-places 
 for the provisions, and also for such stocks 
 of linen and bedding as perhaps nobody 
 ever dreamed of before the Crimean 
 War. 
 
 The fatal notions of Regimental Hos- 
 pital management caused infinite misery 
 at Scutari. In entering the Regimental 
 Hospital, the soldier carries his kit, or 
 can step into his quarters for it : and the 
 regulations, therefore, suppose him to be 
 supplied with shirts and stockings, towel 
 and soap, brushes and comb. This sup- 
 position was obstinately persevered in at 
 Scutari, till private charity had shamed 
 the authorities into providing for the 
 men's wants. When the wounded were 
 brought from the Alma, embarked on 
 crowded transports straight from the bat- 
 tle-field, how could they bring their kits ? 
 Miss Nightingale, and benevolent visitors 
 from England, bought up at Constanti- 
 nople, and obtained from home, vast sup- 
 plies of body- and bed-linen, towels, ba- 
 sins, and water-cans ; and till they did 
 so, the poor patients lay on a single blan- 
 ket or coarse canvas sheet, in their one 
 shirt, perhaps soaked in blood and dirt 
 There were some stores in the hospital, 
 though not enough ; and endless difficul- 
 ty was made about granting them, lest 
 any man should have brought his kit, 
 and thus have a double supply. Amidst 
 the emergencies of active war, it seems 
 to be an obvious provision that every 
 General Hospital should have in store, 
 with ample bedding, body-linen enough 
 for as many patients as can occupy the 
 bedsj — the consideration being kept in 
 view, that, where the sick and wounded 
 are congregated, more frequent changes 
 
724 
 
 Health in the Hospital, 
 
 [December, 
 
 of linen are necesssary than under any- 
 other circumstances. 
 
 The excellent and devoted managers 
 of the hospitals of the Union army need 
 no teaching as to the daily administra- 
 tion of the affairs of the wards. They 
 ■will never have to do and dare the things 
 that Miss Nightingale had to decide up- 
 on, because they have happily had the 
 privilege of arranging their hospitals on 
 their own principles. They will not 
 know the exasperation of seeing sufferers 
 crowded together on a wooden divan 
 (with an under-stratum of dead rats and 
 rotting rags) while there is an out-house 
 full of bedsteads laid up in store under 
 lock and key. Not being disposed to ac- 
 quiesce in such a state of things, and fail- 
 ing in all attempts to get at the authority 
 which had charge of the locked door, 
 Miss Nightingale called to an orderly or 
 two, and commanded them to break open 
 the door. They stared ; but she said she 
 assumed the responsibility ; and present- 
 ly there were as many men in bed as 
 there were bedsteads. Her doctrine and 
 practice have always been, — instant and 
 silent obedience to medical and disciplina- 
 ry orders, without any qualification what- 
 ever ; and by her example and teach- 
 ing in this respect she at length overcame 
 the jealousy and prejudices of authorities, 
 medical and military : but in such a case 
 as the actual presence of necessaries for 
 the sick, sent out by Government or by 
 private charity for their use, she claimed 
 the benefit, and helped her patients to it, 
 when there was no other obstruction in 
 the way than forms and rules never meant 
 to apply to the case. 
 
 What the jealousy was appeared through 
 very small incidents. A leading medical 
 officer declared, in giving evidence, that 
 the reason why the patients' meals were 
 sometimes served late and cold, or half- 
 cooked, was, that Miss Nightingale and 
 her nurses were forever in the way in 
 the general kitchen, keeping the cooks 
 from the fire : whereas the fact was, that 
 neither Miss Nightingale nor any nurse 
 had ever entered the general kitchen, on 
 any occasion whatever. Their way was 
 
 to have a kitchen of their own. The 
 very idea of that kitchen was savory in 
 the wards ; for out of it came, always at 
 the right moment, arrowroot, hot and of 
 the pleasantest consistence, — rice pud- 
 dings, neither hard on the one hand nor 
 clammy on the other,— cool lemonade for 
 the feverish, cans full of hot tea for the 
 weary, and good coffee for the faint. 
 When the sinking sufferer was lying with 
 closed eyes, too feeble to make moan or 
 sign, the hospital spoon was put between 
 his lips, with the mouthful of strong broth 
 or hot wine which rallied him till the 
 watchful nurse came round again. The 
 meat from that kitchen was tenderer than 
 any other ; the beef-tea was more savory. 
 One thing that came out of it was a les- 
 son on the saving of good cookery. The 
 mere circumstance of the boiling water 
 being really boiling there made a differ- 
 ence of two ounces of rice in every four 
 puddings, and of more than half the ar- 
 rowroot used. The same quantity of ar- 
 rowroot which made a pint, thin and poor, 
 in the general kitchen, made two pints, 
 thick and good, in Miss Nightingale's. 
 
 Then there was the difference in read- 
 iness and punctuality. Owing to cum- 
 brous forms and awkward rules, the or- 
 derlies charged with the business were 
 running round almost all day about the 
 food for their wards; and the patients 
 were disgusted with it at last. There 
 were endless orders and details, whenever 
 the monotonous regular diet was departed 
 from ; whereas the establishment of sev- 
 eral regular diets, according to the classi- 
 fications in the wards, would have simpli- 
 fied matters exceedingly. When every- 
 thing for dysentery patients, or for fever 
 patients, or for certain classes of wound- 
 ed was called "extra diet," there were 
 special forms to be gone through, and 
 orders and contradictions given, which 
 threw everything into confusion, under 
 the name of discipline. The authority 
 of the ward would allow some extra, — • 
 butter, for instance ; and then a higher 
 authority, seeing the butter, and not 
 knowing how it came there, would throw 
 it out of the window, as " spoiling the 
 
1861.] 
 
 Health in the Hospital. 
 
 725 
 
 men." Between getting the orders, and 
 getting the meat and extras, and the mu- 
 tual crowding of the messengers, some of 
 the dinners were not put on the fire till 
 an hour or two after the fainting patient 
 should have had his meal : and then, of 
 course, he could not take it. The cold 
 mutton-chop with its opaque fat, the beef 
 with its caked gravy, the arrowroot stiff 
 and glazed, all untouched, might be seen 
 by the bedsides in the afternoons, while 
 the patients were lying back, sinking for 
 want of support. Probably the dinners 
 had been brought up on a tray, cooling 
 all the way up-stairs and along the corri- 
 dors ; and when brought in, there was 
 the cutting up, in full view of the intend- 
 ed eaters, — sometimes on the orderly's 
 own bed, when the tables were occupied. 
 Under such a system, what must it have 
 been to see the quick and quiet nurses en- 
 ter, as the clock struck, with their hot- wa- 
 ter tins, hot morsels ready-cut, hot plates, 
 bright knife and fork and spoon, — and 
 all ready for instant eating ! This was 
 a strong lesson to those who would learn ; 
 and in a short time there was a great 
 change for the better. The patients who 
 were able to sit at table were encouraged 
 to rise, and dress, and dine in cheerful 
 company, and at the proper hour. It 
 was discovered, that, if an alternation was 
 provided of soups, puddings, fish, poul- 
 try, and vegetables, with the regular beef 
 dinner, the great mass of trouble about 
 extras was swept away at once ; for these 
 varieties met every case in hospital ex- 
 cept the small number which required 
 slops and cordials, or something very un- 
 usual. By this clearance, time was saved 
 to such an extent that punctuality be- 
 came possible, and the refusal of food al- 
 most ceased. 
 
 All these details point to the essential 
 badness of the system of requisitions. In 
 the old days, when war was altogether a 
 mass of formalities, — and in peace times, 
 when soldiers and their guardians had 
 not enough to do, and it was made an 
 object and employment to save the na- 
 tional property by hedging round all ex- 
 penditure of that property with difficul- 
 
 ties, the system of requisitions might suit 
 the period and the parties. Amidst the 
 rapid action and sharp emergencies of 
 war it is out of place. It was found in- 
 tolerable that nothing whatever could be 
 had, — not a dose of medicine, nor a 
 candle, nor a sheet, nor a spoon or dish, 
 nor a bit of soap, — without a series of per- 
 mits, and applications, and orders, and 
 vouchers, which frittered away the pre- 
 cious hours, depressed the sick, worried 
 their nurses, and wasted more of money's 
 worth in official time, paper, and expen- 
 sive cross-purposes than could possibly 
 have been saved by all the ostentatious 
 vigilance of the method. The deck-loads 
 of vegetables at Balaklava, thrown over- 
 board because they were rotten before 
 they were drawn, were not the only 
 stores wasted for want of being asked for. 
 When the Scutari hospitals had become 
 healthy and comfortable, there was a thor- 
 ough opening-out of all the stores which 
 had before been made inaccessible by 
 forms. No more bedsteads, no more lime- 
 juice, no more rice, no more beer, no 
 more precious medicines were then lock- 
 ed away, out of the reach or the knowl- 
 edge of those who were d^-ing, or seeing 
 others die, for want of them. 
 
 One miserable consequence of the 
 cumbrous method was, that there was no 
 certainty at any hour of some essential 
 commodity not falling short. It would 
 have been a dismal day for the most suf- 
 fering of the patients when there was not 
 fuel enough to cook " extras," if Miss 
 Nightingale had not providently bought 
 four boat-loads of wood to meet such a 
 . contingency. It was a dreadful night in 
 the hospital, when, as cholera patients 
 were brought in by the score, the sur- 
 geons found there were no candles to be 
 had. In that disease, of all maladies, 
 they had to tend their patients in the 
 dark all night; and a more shocking 
 scene can scarcely be conceived. 
 
 Every great influx of patients was ter- 
 rible, whether from an epidemic or after 
 a battle ; but experience and devoted- 
 ness made even this comparatively easy 
 before the troops turned homewards. 
 
726 
 
 Health in the Hospital. 
 
 [December, 
 
 The arrival of a transport was, perhaps, 
 the first intimation of the earlier battles. 
 Then all was hurry-skurry in the hospi- 
 tals ; everybody was willing to help, but 
 the effectual organization was not yet 
 ready. 
 
 Of every hundred on board the trans- 
 port, an average of ten had died since 
 leaving the Crimea. The names and 
 causes of death of these men ought to be 
 recorded ; but the surgeons of the trans- 
 port are wholly occupied in despatching 
 their living charge to the hospital ; and 
 the surgeons there have enough to do in 
 receiving them. Attempts are made to 
 obtain the number and names and in- 
 juries of the new patients : there may or 
 may not be a list furnished from the 
 ship ; and the hospital surgeons inquire 
 from bed to bed : but in such a scene 
 mistakes are sure to arise ; and it was 
 found, in fact, that there was always more 
 or less variation between the numbers 
 recorded as received or dead and the 
 proper number. No one could wonder 
 at this who had for a moment looked up- 
 on the scene. The poor fellows just ar- 
 rived had perhaps not had their clothes 
 off since they were wounded or were 
 seized with cholera, and they were steep- 
 ed in blood and filth, and swarming with 
 vermin. To obtain shirts and towels was 
 hard work, because it had to be proved 
 that they brought none with them. They 
 were laid on the floor in the corridors, as 
 close as they could be packed, thus breath- 
 ing and contaminating the air which was 
 to have refreshed the wards within. If 
 laid upon so-called sheets, they entreated 
 that the sheets might be taken away ; for 
 they were of coarse canvas, intolerable 
 to the skin. Before the miserable com- 
 pany could be fed, made clean, and treat- 
 ed by the surgeons, many were dead; 
 and a too large proportion were never to 
 leave the place more, though struggling 
 for a time with death. It was amidst such 
 a scene that Florence Nightingale refus- 
 ed to despair of five men so desperately 
 wounded as to be set aside by the sur- 
 geons. The surgeons were right. As 
 they said, their time was but too little for 
 
 the cases which were not hopeless. And 
 Florence Nightingale was right in find- 
 ing time, if she could, to see whether 
 there was really no chance. She ascer- 
 tained that these five were absolutely 
 given over ; and she and her assistants 
 managed to attend to them through the 
 night. She cleaned and comforted them, 
 and had spoonfuls of nourishment ready 
 whenever they could be swallowed. By 
 the morning round of the surgeons, these 
 men were ready to be operated upon ; 
 and they were all saved. 
 
 It would have been easier work at a 
 later period. Before many months were • 
 over, the place was ready for any num- 
 ber to be received in peace and quiet- 
 ness. Instead of being carried from one 
 place to another, because too many had 
 been sent to one hospital and too few to 
 another, the poor fellows were borne in 
 the shortest and easiest way from the 
 boat to their beds. They were found 
 eager for cleanliness ; and presently they 
 were clean accordingly, and lying on a 
 good bed, between clean, soft sheets. 
 They did not come in scorbutic, like their 
 predecessors ; and they had no reason to 
 drea^ hospital gangrene or fever. Every 
 floor and every pane in the windows was. 
 clean ; and the air came in pure from 
 the wide, empty corridors. There was 
 a change of linen whenever it was desir- 
 ed ; and the shirts came back from the 
 wash perfectly sweet and fresh. The 
 cleaning of the wards was done in the 
 mornings, punctually, quickly, quietly, 
 and thoroughly. The doctors came round, 
 attended by a nurse who received the 
 orders, and was afterwards steady in the 
 fulfilment of them. The tables of the 
 medicines of the day were hung up in 
 the ward ; and the nurse went round to 
 administer them with her own hand. 
 Where she was, there was order and 
 quietness all day, and the orderlies were 
 worth twice as much as before the wom- 
 en came. Their manners were better"; 
 and they gave their minds more to their 
 business. The nurse found time to suit 
 each patient who wished It with a book 
 or a newspaper, when gifts of that sort 
 
1861.] 
 
 Heallk in the Hospital, 
 
 ni 
 
 arrived from England. Kind visitors sat 
 by the beds to write letters for the patients, 
 undertaking to see the epistles forwarded 
 to England. When the invalids became 
 able to rise for dinner, it was a turning- 
 point in their case ; and they were soon 
 getting into the apartment where there 
 were games and books and meetings of 
 old comrades. As I have said before, 
 those who died at these hospitals were 
 finally scarcely more than those who 
 died in — not the hospitals — but the bar- 
 racks of the Guards at home. 
 
 What were the changes In organization 
 needed to produce such a regeneration 
 as this ? 
 
 They were such as must appear to 
 Americans very simple and easy. The 
 wonder will be rather that they were 
 necessary at last than that they should 
 have been effected with any difficulty. 
 But Americans have never known what 
 it is to have a standing army as a long- 
 established and prominent national Insti- 
 tution ; and they can therefore hardly 
 conceive of the strength of the class- 
 spirit which grows up in the various de- 
 partments of the military organization. 
 This jealousy, egotism, and stiffness of 
 prejudice were much aggravated by the 
 long peace, in which a great rusting of 
 the apparatus of the system took place, 
 without at all Impairing the complacency 
 of those who formed a part of It. The 
 old medical officers were incapable, pe- 
 dantic, and jealous ; and no proper rela- 
 tion had ever been established between 
 them and the military authorities. The 
 imbecility of the system cost the lives of 
 others than the soldiers who died in hos- 
 pital. Brave men arose, as in all such 
 crises, to bear the consequences of other 
 men's mistakes, and the burden of expos- 
 ing them ; and several physicians and 
 surgeons died, far from home. In the effort 
 to ameliorate a system which they found 
 unworkable. The greatest benefactor in 
 exhibiting evils and suggesting remedies, 
 Dr. Alexander, lived to return home, and 
 instigate reforms, and receive the honors 
 which were his due ; but he soon sank 
 under the consequences of his labors. 
 
 So did Lord Herbert, the Secretary of 
 War, to whom, in conjunction with Miss 
 Nightingale, the British army, at home, 
 in India, and everywhere, owes its re- 
 demption from special sickness and undue 
 mortality. In America the advantages 
 may be enjoyed without tax or drawback. 
 The citizens are accustomed to organize 
 themselves for action of all sorts ; and 
 no stiff-necked classes stand in the way 
 of good management. The difficulty in 
 America must rather be to understand 
 how anything so perverse as the manage- 
 ment of British military hospitals ten years 
 ago can have existed to so late a date. 
 
 It was supposed, ten years since, that 
 there must be nine separate departments 
 in every Military General Plospltal, and 
 the officials bore titles accordingly; but 
 there was such an odd confusion in their 
 functions that every one of the nine was 
 often seen doing the business of some oth- 
 er. The medical officers were drawing 
 corks and tasting wines and Inspecting 
 provisions, when they should have been 
 by the bedside. The purveyor was count- 
 ing the soldiers' money, and noting its 
 amount, when he should have been mar- 
 keting, or ordering the giving out of the 
 provisions for the day. The paymaster 
 could scarcely find time to discharge the 
 bills, so much was his day filled up with 
 doing eternal sums about the stoppages 
 in the pay of the patients. There were 
 thirteen kinds of stoppages in the army, 
 three of which were for the sick In hos- 
 pital : the paymaster could never be quite 
 certain that he had reckoned rightly with 
 every man to the last penny ; the men 
 were never satisfied ; and the confusion 
 was endless. The commissariat, the pur- 
 veyor, and the paymaster were all kept 
 waiting to get their books made up, while 
 soldiers were working the sums, — being 
 called from their proper business to help 
 about the daily task of the stoppages. 
 Why there should not be one uniform 
 stoppage out of the pay of men in hos- 
 pital no person of modern ideas could 
 see ; and the paymaster's toils would have 
 been lessened by more than one-half, if 
 he had had to reckon the deduction from 
 
728 
 
 Health in the Hospital. 
 
 [December, 
 
 the patients' pay at threepence or four- 
 pence each, all round, instead of having 
 to deal with thousands per day individu- 
 ally, under three kinds of charge upon 
 the pay. 
 
 The commandant's post was the hard- 
 est, — he being supposed to control every 
 province, and have every official under 
 his orders, and yet being powerless in re- 
 gard to two or three departments, the 
 business of which he did not understand. 
 The officers of those departments went 
 each his own way ; and all unity of action 
 in the establishment was lost. This is 
 enough to say of the old methods. 
 
 In the place of them, a far simpler sys- 
 tem was proposed at the end of the war. 
 The eternal dispute as to whether the 
 commandant should be military or medi- 
 cal, a soldier or a civilian, was set aside 
 by the decision that he should be simply 
 the ablest administrator that could be 
 found, and be called the Governor, to 
 avoid the military title. Why there should 
 be any military management of men who 
 are sick as men, and not as soldiers, it is 
 difficult to see ; and when the patients are 
 about to leave the hospital, a stated su- 
 pervision from the adjutant-general's de- 
 partment is all that can be required. Thus 
 is all the jealousy between military and 
 medical authority got rid of. The Gov- 
 ernor's authority must be supreme, like 
 that of the commandant of a fortress, or 
 the commander of a ship. He will not 
 want to meddle in the doctors' profession- 
 al business ; and in all else he is to be 
 paramount, — being himself responsible 
 to the War-Office. The office, as thus 
 declared, is equivalent to three of the 
 nine old ones, namely, the Commandant, 
 the Adjutant-General, and the Quarter- 
 master-General. 
 
 Next to the Governor, the Chief Med- 
 ical Officer must be the most important 
 man in the establishment. He is to be 
 concerned with professional business only, 
 and to see that all under him are to be 
 devoted in the same way. For this pur- 
 pose there must be an end to the system 
 of requisitions. There must be a Stew- 
 ard, taking his orders from the Governor 
 
 alone, and administering a simple and 
 liberal system of diets and appliances of 
 all sorts. It is his business to provide 
 everything for the consumption of the 
 establishment, and to keep the contrac- 
 tors up to their duty. The Treasurer's 
 function speaks for itself. All the ac- 
 counts and payments under the Govern- 
 or's warrant are in his charge. 
 
 There is one more office, rendered ne- 
 cessary by the various and active service 
 always going on, — the superintendent 
 of that service, or Captain of the Wards. 
 He is to have the oversight of the order- 
 lies, cooks, washers, and storekeepers ; he 
 is to keep order throughout the house ; 
 and he is to be referred to in regard to 
 everything that is wanted in the wards, 
 except what belongs to the department 
 of the medical officers or the steward. 
 
 As for the medical department, there 
 is now a training provided for such sol- 
 diers as wish to qualify themselves for 
 hospital duty. Formerly, the hospital 
 was served by such men as the military 
 officers thought fit to spare for the pur- 
 pose ; and they naturally did not send 
 the best. These men knew nothing 
 of either cleaning wards or nursing pa- 
 tients. Their awkwardness in sweeping 
 and scouring and making beds was ex- 
 treme ; and they were helpless in case 
 of anything being wanted to a blister or 
 a sore. One was found, one day, ear- 
 nestly endeavoring to persuade his pa- 
 tient to eat his poultice. It is otherwise 
 now. The women, where there are any, 
 ought to have the entire charge of the 
 sweeping and cleaning, — the housemaid's 
 work of the wards ; and as to the rest, 
 the men of the medical-staff corps have 
 the means of learning how to dress a 
 blister, and poultice a sore, and apply 
 plasters, lint, and bandages, and admin- 
 ister medicine, and how to aid the sick 
 in their ablutions, in getting their meals 
 with the least fatigue, and so on. 
 
 Of female nurses it is not necessary to 
 say much in America, any more than in 
 England or France. They are not ad- 
 missible into Regimental Hospitals, in a 
 general way ; but in great military and 
 
1861.] 
 
 Health in the Hospital. 
 
 729 
 
 civil hospitals they are a priceless treas- 
 ure. 
 
 The questions in regard to them are 
 two. Shall their office be confined to 
 the care of the linen and stores, and the 
 supplying of extra diets and comforts ? 
 If admitted to officiate in the wards, how 
 far shall that function extend ? 
 
 In England, there seems to be a strong 
 persuasion that some time must elapse, 
 and perhaps a generation of doctors must 
 pass away, before the ministration of fe- 
 male nurses in military hospitals can be- 
 come a custom, or even an unquestioned 
 good. No rationfil person can doubt 
 what a blessing it would be to the pa- 
 tients to have such nurses administer 
 nourishment, when the rough orderlies 
 would not have discernment or patience 
 tO' give the frequent spoonful when the 
 very life may hang upon it. Nobody 
 doubts that wounds would be cleans- 
 ed which otherwise go uncleansed, — 
 that much irritation and suffering would 
 be relieved which there are otherwise 
 no hands to undertake. Nobody doubts 
 that many lives would be saved in every 
 great hospital from the time that fevered 
 frames and the flickerinffs of struo-o-llnor 
 vitahty were put under the charge of the 
 nurses whom Nature made. But the dif- 
 ficulties and risks are great. On the 
 whole, it seems to be concluded by those 
 who know best, that only a few female 
 nurses should be admitted into military 
 and naval hospitals : that they should be 
 women of mature age and ascertained 
 good sense, thoroughly trained to their 
 business : that they should be the women 
 who have been, or who would be, the 
 head nurses in other hospitals, and that 
 they should be paid on that scale : that 
 they should have no responsibility, — 
 being wholly subject to the surgeons in 
 ward affairs, and to their own superin- 
 tendent in all others : that no enthusiasts 
 or religious devotees should be admitted, 
 — because that very qualification shows 
 that they do not understand the busi- 
 ness of nursing : that everything that can 
 be as well done by men should be done 
 by trained orderhes : that convalescents 
 
 VOL. VIII. 47 
 
 should, generally speaking, be attended 
 on by men, — and if not, that each fe- 
 male nurse of convalescents should have 
 a hundred or so in her charge, whereas 
 of the graver cases forty or fifty are as 
 many as one nurse can manage, with any 
 amount of help from orderlies. These 
 proposals give some idea of what is con- 
 templated with regard to the ordinary 
 nurses in a General Military Hospital. 
 The superintendent of the nurses in each 
 institution must be a woman of high qual- 
 ity and large experience. And she will 
 show her good sense, in the first place, by 
 insisting on a precise definition of her 
 province, that there may be no avoidable 
 ill-will on the part of the medical officers, 
 and no cause of contention with the cap- 
 tain of service, or whatever the adminis- 
 trator of the interior may be called. She 
 must have a decisive voice in the choice 
 of her nurses ; and she will choose them 
 for their qualifications as nurses only, af- 
 ter being satisfied as to their character, 
 health, and temper. 
 
 No good nurse can endure any fuss 
 about her work and her merits. Enthu- 
 siasts and devotees find immediately that 
 they are altogether out of place in a hos- 
 pital, — or, as we may now say, they would 
 find this, if they were ever to enter a hos- 
 pital : for, in fact, they never now arrive 
 there. The preparation brings them to 
 a knowledge of themselves ; and the two 
 sorts of women who really and perma- 
 nently become nurses are those who de- 
 sire to make a living by a useful and val- 
 ued and well-paid occupation, and those 
 who benevolently desire to save life and 
 mitigate suffering, with such a temper of 
 sobriety and moderation as causes them 
 to endure hardship and ill-usage with 
 firmness, and to dislike praise and ce- 
 lebrity at least as much as hostility and 
 evil construction. The best nurses are 
 foremost in perceiving the absurdity and 
 disagreeableness of such heroines of ro- 
 mance as flourished in the press seven 
 years ago, — young ladies disappointed 
 in love, who went out to the East, found 
 their lovers in hospital, and went off with 
 them, to be happy ever after, without any 
 
730 
 
 A Story of Thanksgiving- Time. 
 
 [December, 
 
 anxiety or shame at deserting their pa- 
 tients in the wards without leave or no- 
 tice. Not of this order was Florence 
 Nightingale, whose practical hard work, 
 personal reserve, and singular adminis- 
 trative power have placed her as high 
 above impeachment for feminine weak- 
 nesses as above the ridicule which com- 
 monly attends the striking out of a new 
 course by man or woman. Those who 
 most honor her, and most desire to follow 
 her example, are those who most stead- 
 ily bring their understandings and their 
 hearts to bear upon the work which she 
 
 began. Her ill-health has withdrawn her 
 from active nursing and administration ; 
 but she has probably done more towards 
 the saving of life by working in connec- 
 tion with the War-Office in private than 
 by her best-known deeds in her days of 
 health. Through her, mainly, it is that 
 every nation has already studied with 
 some success the all-important subject of 
 Health in the Camp and in the Hospi- 
 tal. It now lies in the way of Ameri- 
 can women to take up the office, and, 
 we may trust, to " better the instruc- 
 tion." 
 
 A STORY OF THANKSGIVING-TIME. 
 
 Old Jacob Newell sat despondent be- " 
 side his sitting-room fire. Gray-haired 
 and venerable, with a hundred hard lines, 
 telling of the work of time and struggle 
 and misfortune, furrowing his pale face, 
 he looked the incarnation of silent sorrow 
 and hopelessness, waiting in quiet meek- 
 ness for the advent of the King of Ter- 
 rors : waiting, but not hoping, for his 
 coming ; without desire to die, but with 
 no dread of death. 
 
 At a short distance from him, in an an- 
 cient straight-backed rocking-chair, dark 
 with age, and clumsy in its antique carv- 
 ings, sat his wife. Stiffly upright, and 
 with an almost painful primness in dress 
 and figure, she sat knitting rapidly and 
 with closed eyes. Her face was rigid as 
 a mask ; the motion in her fingers, as she 
 plied her needles, was spasmodic and ma- 
 chine-like ; the figure, though quiet, wore 
 an air of iron repose that was most un- 
 easy and unnatural. Still, through the 
 mask and from the figure there stole the 
 aspect and air of one who had within her 
 deep wells of sweetness and love which on- 
 ly strong training or power of education 
 had thus covered up and obscured. She 
 looked of that stern Puritanical stock 
 whose iron will conquered the severity 
 
 of New England winters and overcame 
 the stubbornness of its granite hills, and 
 whose idea of a perfect life consisted in 
 the rigorous discharge of all Christian du- 
 ties, and the banishment, forever and at 
 all times, of the levity of pleasure and the 
 folly of amusement. She could have walk- 
 ed, if need were, with composure to the 
 stake ; but she could neither have joined 
 in a game at cards, nor have entered into 
 a romp with little children. All this was 
 plainly to be seen in the stern repose of 
 her countenance and the stiff harshness 
 of her figure. 
 
 Upon the stained deal table, standing 
 a little in the rear and partially between 
 the two, reposed an open Bible. Between 
 its leaves lay a pair of large, old-fashion- 
 ed, silver-bowed spectacles, which the hus- 
 band had but recently laid there, after 
 reading the usual daily chapter of Holy 
 Writ. He had ceased but a moment be- 
 fore, and had laid them down with a 
 heavy sigh, for his heart to-day was sore- 
 ly oppressed; and no wonder; for, fol- 
 lowing his gaze around the room, we find 
 upon the otherwise bare walls five -sad 
 mementos of those who had "gone be- 
 fore," — five coarse and unartistic, but 
 loving tributes to the dead. 
 
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