Such are the difficulties even where there is an appointed chaplain. In county hospitals the patients are too often left to the care of a clergyman who has already the heavy charge, either of a parish or of several institutions, whose united salaries form but a small income for the maintenance of a family. In such a case, of course, little more than one Sunday service can be looked for.

Another plan occasionally adopted in the hospitals of large towns is, that the year's duty should be divided amongst the town clergy, who discharge it gratuitously. The evils of such a system it is scarcely necessary to dwell upon. The temporary chaplain has scarcely become acquainted with his patients when he is succeeded. by another, whose teaching may be in a wholly different strain.

One remedy for such a state of things is the admission of ladies as visitors; and in some instances such a staff is thankfully accepted, and doubtless to many patients the Christian sympathy and teaching imparted by them have been a lasting blessing. But in many hospitals such a system is objected to, and not without good grounds. These visitors may interfere unconsciously with the treatment of the doctor, and the teaching of the chaplain. They may, from ignorance of the bodily state of the patients, over-fatigue the weak, and overexcite the feverish. Respect to superiors forbids patients speaking openly on such points, and while they feel grateful for the kind intention, they may often feel relieved when the lady visitor departs.

Even where it is best organized, such help cannot reach the evil that is to be corrected; and when instances are brought forward of the lasting impressions made on some who have had the blessings of spiritual instruction during their illness, it only more clearly shows the necessity of attempting to give the same to all.

Another remedy which suggests itself is, that the nurses might be the means of giving religious instruction and comfort to the sick among whom they are placed, who know every temper of those on whom they attend,

who have access at all times, and who, without adding to their labour, may give words of Christian comfort as they see fit.

In suggesting such a remedy, it was necessary to inquire into the general class of hospital nurses. The situation is most trying and responsible. Obedience, presence of mind, cheerfulness, patience, forbearance, judgment, tenderness, these are among the qualities required in a nurse, and where are these to be found combined.

The wages in London hospitals vary from £14 to £25 per annum, besides board and lodging. The average number of nurses is one to ten beds by day, and twenty by night.

Only a very low class of women apply for the situation of under-nurses, and the difficulty of procuring them at all is at times so great, that matrons are often obliged to receive them without obtaining any character. Till within the last few years, drunkenness was carried on to a fearful extent: and, though this has been considerably checked, it still remains the besetting sin of nurses; and excuses are made for it on the plea that they need the support of spirits under their harassing work. A medical man in one of the large northern hospitals was questioned as to the religious character of his nurses. If I can but obtain a sober set," was his answer, "it is as much as I can hope for."

Frightful tales of profligacy amongst the nurses have been brought to light by inquiry, and it is often the case that the best nurses, so far as medical attendance and skill goes, are the worst characters.

Respectable patients, who have come into a hospital, hoping and believing that they should benefit both bodily and spiritually, have gone home worse in the latter respect than they came in, their tone of mind lowered by the conversation they have heard, unchecked, around them; and even where all is outwardly correct, the tients' sufferings are too often aggravated by the rough treatment they receive, the harsh words spoken, the ab

pa

sence of that tender sympathy which soothes prolonged pain and sickness, and which, amidst every other privation, they might have had at home.

The following pages will show that at present it is all but hopeless to expect any assistance from nurses. The number of sick who came under hospital care in London are

In-patients.
Out-patients

85,620

268,052

353,679

This only includes the hospitals, not the dispensaries. When we find everywhere the progress of error, is it not necessary to consider at what points light can be diffused,-in what way the poor can be reached?

10

CHAPTER II.

CHAPLAINS OF HOSPITALS.

Ir was under a deep sense of the general need of English hospitals that the following paper was drawn up, with a view of stating what had been done elsewhere, and of obtaining further information as to the present state of hospitals in England. The plan proposed was naturally suggested by the difficulties which the present differences of opinion create in the way of employing lady visitors, or of receiving nurses from training institutions, managed by chaplains whose views are not in accordance with those of the chaplains of the Hospitals. Nor is the zeal and energy required for these sacred duties often found, except in conjunction with some one or other school of opinion likely to provoke these differences. The most obvious course therefore was to ascertain whether it seemed that these difficulties could be obviated by leaving each chaplain free to exercise, as each should think best, the duty to which they are called, -to carry out literally in the wards of the Hospital the spirit of the solemn words spoken to them on the day of thei rordination.

"It has often been remarked by those who have visited much in English Hospitals, that the spiritual care of the patients is not what it might or ought to be. Doubtless

there are noble exceptions; but, in most hospitals, the care of the patients devolves upon an already overworked clergyman, from whom it is physically impossible to expect more than the appointed service once or twice a week, and a visit in extreme cases; while the duties are beyond those of most ordinary parishes, as every case is one needing individual care and treatment. For at what period is pastoral instruction so desirable as in the case of the poor removed for awhile from the cares of their family, with more time to reflect, to read, to pray, to gain strength for the worldly conflict with which they are constantly engaged at home, than at any other probable period of their existence, with the end of life hourly before each, even where the individual case is not one of danger? The soul cannot remain stationary during such seasons: it will be either softened or hardened. How then can such seasons be turned to most account?

"Medical men (wisely it may be) often object to the system of indiscriminate visiting by ladies, who, from ignorance of the cases, may over-excite the body in their attempts to arouse the soul. They can moreover only be admitted at certain hours, for a limited time; they can know little or nothing of the patients, nor how far each is capable of receiving instruction or comfort. Chaplains may also justly object to such visitors, who may counteract the influence of their own teaching.

"How then can each case in a hospital receive the attention which it needs? The question has often been asked. The best answer which has hitherto been found is perhaps the successful trial, in a foreign Protestant institution, of the following system of training the nurses