175NURSES AND THE PUBLIC VIEW OF THEIR WORK.

poor children requiring the benefit of seaside air and for

children suffering from pulmonary tuberculosis in its earlystages. The Board complains that the guardians also failto take full advantage of the excellent training which isgiven to boys on the training-ship Exmo?tt7t. The guardiansof some of the country unions are not so lax in their atten-tion to the best interests of boys under their care and thenumber of boys from these unions at the Eaem01bth is yearly z,

increasing. It is hoped that as the good work of theseinstitutions becomes better known they will be more

appreciated. -

TREATMENT OF EPILEPTIFORM NEURALGIAWITH THE X RAYS.

AT a meeting of the Societe Médicale des Hôpitaux ofParis on May 4th M. A. Bedere and M. Haret showed a manthe subject of left facial paralysis whose face on 1hat sidewas disfigured with cicatrices. For seven years he had

suffered from epileptiform neuralgia and had undergone anumber of operations. First, all the teeth on the left sideof the upper jaw were extracted in succession. Then theinfra-orbital nerve was divided. No relief was afforded.Excision of the Gasserian ganglion was performed and thefacial paralysis was a result. The pains disappeared butreturned after six or seven months. Then the superiorcervical ganglion of the sympathetic nerve was excised.The pains again disappeared but returned after a shorterinterval-four or five months. Severe attacks of epilepti-form neuralgia occurred from ten to 12 times daily. The

p,ains were felt in the alveolar border of the left superiormaxillary bone from which the teeth had been ex-

tracted. The x rays were applied through the mouthsolely to the painful region, the neighbouring partsbeing protected by a tube of lead glass (2erre au

plomb). The rays fell on the alveolar border in the

position of the first and second molar teeth. They wereapplied at intervals of a week. After the first and second

sittings there was no improvement but after the third

the pain diminished and a slight reaction was observed onthe border of the upper lip, which had been badly pro-tected. After the fourth sitting, which took place on

April 25th, 1905, the pains disappeared and they have notsince returned. M. Béclère and M. Haret did not claim tohave cured the patient by this treatment but to have pro-duced an interval of immunity of more than a year, a muchbetter result than that given by the severe operations. IE f

the pains recurred the treatment could be repeated. Theydid not assert that all cases of facial neuralgia would givesuch a good result but they thought that before exposing apajiient to the dangers of such an operation as excision ofthe Gasserian ganglion this simple method of treatment

should be tried. ___

NURSES AND THE PUBLIC VIEW OF THEIRWORK.

THERE can be little doubt that the popular views onnursing are liable to be erroneous and must be thecause of no little annoyance to those who follow that

calling. On the one hand, there are some who refer to thenurse in terms of fulsome adulation as combinirg thequalities of the heroine with the devotion and self-sacrificeof the saint and in every way exaggerate the importance ofher place in the scheme of treatment, forgetting that theduties of the true nurse are to minister to the comfortof her patient and religiously to carry out the instructionsof the practitioner who is in charge of the case. Onthe other hand, the nurse is too often treated both un-

kindly and neglectfully by those who, forgetting the

arduous and exacting character of her duties, make un-reasonable demands upon her time and energies and

deny to her that consideration in regard to her own

personal health and comfort to which she is justlyentitled. Thus, the nurse is not infrequently in privatehouses expected to be on duty or within call both night andday, to snatch her meals when she can, and to forego someof the necessary rest and exercise without which she cannot

hope to remain in health. That conditions perilously nearto sweating are not unknown to the nursing staffs ofinstitutions would appear to be the case if the account

given of the proceedings of the Aston board of guardians,reported in the issue of the Ifirnzingh4m Despatoh ofJune 27th under the heading of " over-worked nurses," is tobe believed. The infirmary committee in the course of a reportto the board called attention to the fact that the infirmarywas understaffed, pointing out that a probationer nurse wasoften in charge of more than one ward-that is, of more than50 patients. A member of the committee, in moving theadoption of the report, pointed out the severe strain upon thenight staff of the hospital and stated that the night nursesofter had to go without their meals owing to the pressure oftheir duties. It was proposed that six additional nursesshould be appointed so as to have one on night duty for eachward, which would appear to be a reasonable demand, indeedthe least compatible with safety. Eventually, after somediscussion, it was decided to appoint three additional nursesinstead of six. A member of the board who was subsequentlyinterviewed expressed his disappointment that the guardiansfailed to realise the high pressure at which the nurses

worked and also his fear that the incomplete night nursingwould be responsible for occurrences which the guardianswould deplore, owing to the number of acute cases and ofmental cases which required constant attention. It is mani-

festly unjust, alike to the patients and to the nurses them-selves, that too great a number of beds should be assignedto the care of each nurse, so as to render it impossible tocarry out effectively the requisite nursing of each patient.The incident illustrates the lack of knowledge of the dutiesand hours of work of nurses which so generally obtains.It is certainly the duty of those in authority at publicinstitutions and of the heads of private nursing associationsto see not only that the nurses carry out their duties satis-factorily but also that they are not over-worked and thatthey obtain an adequate amount of rest and of outdoorexercise. The altruistic aspects of the profession of medicineand of nursing are likely to invest them with a senti-

mentality in the minds of certain people who forget that,after all, their exponents are in the majority of cases followingthem as a means of livelihood and endeavouring to do theirduty to the best of their ability and that they deserve asufficient recompense for their labours and some considera-tion at the hands of those for whom they often give mostunsparingly of their time and ability, not merely from anexalted idea of the nobility of their calling but from asincere and honest desire to carry out efficiently the dutiesintrusted to them.

____

INTEMPERANCE IN THE EIGHTEENTHCENTURY.

A PIONEER of temperance reform, writing in 1734, makesthe now familiar complaint as to the recklessness of drinkersand the deadly effects of over-indulgence in liquor. "Thoughthey yearly see a thousand fall at their side," says he, " andten thousand at their right band, yet will they not bewarned. There is that predominant bewitching of naughti-ness in these fiery liquors, as strongly and impetuouslycarries men on to their certain destruction." The old writer

at first sight use3 a familiar set of phrases and indulges inwhat looks like the time honoured exaggerations of themodern anti-alcohol crusade. Yet a closer acquaintancewith his 11 Friendly Admonition to the Drinkers of Brandy"

"