comfort; next, those of their order, and of the servants on the
establishment personally connected with them; and, last of all, those of
the patients. On an unprejudiced examination it will be found, that a body
so constituted as the _soeurs_, are extremely unfit for the performance of
such functions as are entrusted to them in these establishments. It is
essential to the good performance of the duties of a nurse, that she
should be responsible to the medical officer for their omission. The
_soeurs_ are entirely independent of any such control, and their usual
answer to any complaint is, '_Je reponds a mon crucifix_.'"

"It is a great mistake to suppose that these nuns are enlightened, or well
born, or well educated. In general they are ignorant women, too poor and
too deficient in personal qualities to find husbands. They are proud,
arrogant, and bigoted; and, with a few interesting exceptions, it may be
said of them, that they become nuns for want of better occupations; that
they are characterized by the ill temper of disappointment, at the world
having neglected or rejected them, rather than by any sublime elevation of
feeling, which could have led them to reject the world. It is a delusion
to suppose that all the more important duties, on the due performance of
which the success of medical treatment mainly depends, devolve upon the
_soeurs_. The fact is, that it is one of the most serious defects of the
French hospitals, that proper persons are not procured to perform these
services: such as waiting upon the patients, changing their linen, moving
them, and administering to their little wants, in a proper manner. In
Paris there is a class of men, the refuse of the working classes, who,
when all means of support fail, apply to the hospitals, and become
_infirmières_. It will scarcely be believed, that to these men are
entrusted the important duties to which we have adverted, and which the
Doctor seems to suppose are chiefly performed by the _soeurs_. These
_infirmières_ receive for their services only six-and-eightpence per month,