They have, from the first, been allowed a free voice in regard to all those departments of social life which naturally fall within their sphere as Christian citizens; and the result has justified their admission, since the most generally respected of the sex have dignified the sections with their presence or with their written contributions. “The Association," says Mr. Hastings, "has twice received (at. Liverpool and Dublin) from the hands of Miss Nightingale the most valuable information and advice as to the proper construction of hospitals, and the best plan for obtaining hospital statistics."

The papers contributed on these subjects to the Liverpool meeting having been printed separately, by order of the Council, were sent to every hospital in the United Kingdom; and their contents, it is known, have exercised a beneficial influence over the authorities of those institutions.

Miss Nightingale, though by far the most experienced and influential, is not the only lady who has lent her aid to the Department of Public Health; the Ladies' Sanitary Society, which is affiliated to the Association, has rendered the most important services by its practical exertions in the cause.

The Workhouse Visiting Society has also been developed in connexion with the Association, and Miss Twining's persistent efforts to arouse public opinion on the condition of the recipients of legal charity have resulted in practical improvement in many workhouses, besides awakening that degree of general interest on the subject which renders it much easier to introduce modifications in law. The great need in this, as in all works of charity among us, is of more workers, more lady visitors, more people in each town determined that their particular workhouse shall be well managed, well classified, and rendered a social disinfector rather than a fresh source of morbid injury.

As we turn over the pages of this volume, each subject, each reference, recals the animated intellectual interest, the bright social gaiety of last year's meeting in Dublin. In this year the evening arrangements are particularly complete, and the leading journal exhorts England to show liberal hospitality to the numerous foreigners who are our invited guests. One great loss has, however, truly "thrown a gloom over the prospects of the year." It was hoped that the Prince Consort, who took a warm interest in the welfare of the Association, "would have consented to preside over the London meeting, and lend to its proceedings the invaluable aid of his intellect, experience, and European reputation. The grave which has closed over this and so many other expectations, has deprived the nation of one of the warmest and most enlightened promoters of Social Science."

Ere these lines are printed and published it will be the very eve of the great Congress. Let us gratefully wish for an ample measure of success, popularity, and usefulness to the Giant of Guildhall.

VOL. IX.

U

LI.-ALL SAINTS' HOME.

For many years past the nursing at King's College Hospital has been superintended by the ladies of St. John's House, and now a second great institution-that known as the North London or University College Hospital-has been given into the charge of a sisterhood of the Church of England, resident at All Saints' Home, Margaret Street, W.

Of University College Hospital it suffices to say that it was founded in 1833, for the relief of poor, sick, and maimed persons, and the delivery of poor married women, and for furthering the objects of the College by affording improved means of instruction in medicine and surgery to the medical students, and that the first stone was laid by Lord Brougham.

The Committee having for some time anxiously directed their attention towards securing improvement in their system of nursing, made a temporary arrangement with the All Saints' Home to supply nurses to the two upper wards of the Hospital, which nurses were under the supervision of their own Superior, but at the same time subject to the control of the Matron of the Hospital. This temporary arrangement ceases on the 2nd of June, and the whole charge of the nursing department is to devolve on the Superior of the Home.

The precise nature and objects of All Saints' Home is best explained by the Chaplain, Mr. Richards, in a circular bearing date 1860. He states that,

"This Institution was begun in a very small way in 1851 by the present Superior, who took charge of three old women and two orphan girls out of the district of All Saints. Very soon the number of inmates increased so as to fill the house in Mortimer Street, when another was added to it; but the two were soon found to be inadequate; and so the work, year by year, grew and multiplied.

"Other ladies having now from time to time joined the Superior, it was in 1856 determined to take a long lease of their present residence in Margaret Street; which was dedicated by a special Office to God's Service by the Bishop of Oxford, acting for the late Bishop of London, who was by severe illness prevented from attending; and at the same time the ladies, having previously formed themselves into a Sisterhood and elected the present Superior to be the Mother of the Institution, presented her to the Bishop for his Confirmation and Episcopal Benediction.

"The Sisters are governed by rules and statutes allowed by the Bishop of London, who has very kindly consented to be the Visitor-and they elected the Rev. W. Upton Richards, being the Incumbent of the district, as their Chaplain. They call themselves Sisters of the Poor,' and it is the one wish of those engaged in this work, to make it as far as possible the Church's expression of sympathy for all who are in want, or sickness, or sorrow. "The Works in which the Sisters are engaged are various. They teach in the schools of the district, and visit and nurse the poor and sick at their own houses. In the ALL SAINTS' HOME they take charge of orphan girlsreceive aged and infirm women, incurably sick women, and young serving girls. These latter, as well as the orphans, are trained up for service, and are

instructed in the various kinds of household work, and if any show an aptitude for teaching, they are trained to be schoolmistresses. There is also an Infant nursery, which the Sisters have lately considerably enlarged, where mothers, who have to go out and work for their living, may leave their children for the day. There is also an Industrial School, in which all kinds of plain needlework are done; and the Sisters themselves are ready to undertake Fancy and Ecclesiastical work, at the customary charges,—and also illuminate texts, markers, &c.

"Attached to the Home is a Pharmacy, where medicines are dispensed by the Sisters to the sick and needy, under the kind supervision of able and experienced Physicians, who regularly visit the Institution and give their services gratuitously.

"A Mortuary Chapel has also been added for the reception of the dead previous to burial: this is available to all who may apply: an incalculable boon in a thickly populated district, where even the living are too much crowded together for health and cleanliness.

"The Institution depends entirely on voluntary gifts and offerings; and the Sisters are glad to call at the houses of the rich for their broken victuals, whenever they have permission to do so. This has been a very fruitful means of support, especially in what is called the London season, when the families are in town.

"At this present time the Institution consists of ten old women, thirty-two orphans, forty serving girls, and seventeen incurables, making altogether, including the Sisters and others who help in the work, a family of upwards of a hundred; and since its beginning many more persons have passed through it, deriving more or less benefit from its charity.

"The Sisters have lately taken a small house at Harlow, in Essex, whither they can send from time to time such of the inmates as may require country air. This Convalescent Home, though adding greatly to the expenses of the work, is yet almost indispensable.

"There are associated with the Sisters some ladies living in the world, who are called 'Outer Sisters. They give assistance how and when they can -some by personal attendance in the house, others by money, or by needlework, or by finding places for the serving girls, but all by their prayers.

"A very large sum, as may be imagined, is annually needed for the carrying on of so vast a work; the expenses, for instance, attending the proper care of the sick and the dying, and the additional house at Harlow, are necessarily very great. The Chaplain would therefore wish to commend the ALL SAINTS' HOME most earnestly to the Christian charity of all who are able to give, bidding them to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.' God has hitherto wonderfully prospered the Institution. May He continue to vouchsafe His blessing on the work, and put it into the hearts of the faithful to give of their abundance to these Sisters of the Poor for Jesus' sake.

"Give alms of thy goods, and never turn thy face from any poor man : and then the Face of the Lord shall not be turned away from thee.

66

November, 1860."

"W. UPTON RICHARDS, "Chaplain.

The Superior has lately issued the following regulations regarding the nurses to be employed by her, which we give at length on account of their practical utility, as a guide to those who may wish to apply for such situations under the sisterhood:

"Women of a superior class received to be trained for nursing the sick poor in hospitals, and for private nursing in the families of the rich.

Applications to be made to the Mother Superior of All Saints' Home, 82, Margaret Street, Cavendish Square, W.

"Probationers admitted between the ages of twenty and forty-five.

"The time of probation to be three months; during which period the Probationers will receive no wages, and will have to find their own clothes, with the exception of caps, which will be provided for them. Their dress must be neat and simple.

"No Nurse or Probationers allowed to wear a crinoline, either in the hospital, or while engaged in nursing in private families.

"The following is the Scale of Wages which will be given:

£ s. d.

10 10 0

12 O 0

14 O

"After the fifth year a Nurse will receive £20 without further increase. "Each Nurse will have two print dresses and two best dresses given her every year; she will also be provided with caps, collars, and aprons, and she will be always expected to wear the dress provided for her, while at the Hospital, or at her work elsewhere.

"The out-door dress of the Nurses will be left to themselves to provide, but it must be plain and neat, and flowers are strictly forbidden.

"The Nurses and Probationers will be found in everything in the way of board; also in medical attendance and washing.

"The Nurses must give a month's notice before leaving, and will receive the same from the Superior, except in cases of bad conduct or wilful disobedience, when they will be liable to instant dismissal.

"The Probationers must be Members of the Church of England, and will be required to produce certificates of baptism, and, if married, of marriage also, and to bring testimonials of good character; they must also be able to read and write.

"The Probationers and Nurses will be entirely under the authority of the Superior, and of any Sister whom she may place over them in their work. They may receive no gratuities from patients under any circumstances whatever."

66

LII.—THE ROYAL MATERNITY CHARITY.

A GREAT public dinner, held at the London Tavern on the 13th of May, the Lord Mayor presiding, to which, for the first time, ladies were this year admitted, has drawn our attention to a City charity which has reached the age of one hundred and five years, and possesses features peculiarly demanding our notice.

In 1757 a Mr. Le Cour, a benevolent inhabitant of the City of London, bethought him that the Lying-in-Hospitals were, after all, a melancholy substitute for private charity, inasmuch as they removed the mother from her home at a time when in another class of life such removal would be looked upon with the greatest pain and repugnance; and he it was who, with the aid of a few humane people, set on foot the Royal Maternity Charity for affording gratuitous medical assistance at home,-a much safer, as well as cheaper, form

of charity. In a hundred years the extraordinary number of 385,488 women were thus attended at their own dwellings; an average of nearly 4000 a year.

The special point, however, on which the reports lay most stress is, that the women are attended by practitioners of their own sex; a large staff of carefully educated midwives (of whom there are now thirty-four) are employed under the superintendence of the appointed physicians. These midwives are located in various parts of London—the area of the Charity's operations extending to three miles in every direction from St. Paul's Cathedral. They are not restricted in the exercise of their profession to the patients of the Charity solely, though such patients are at all times, and without exception, to have the preference; their services are available to any other persons who, either from choice or necessity, may be desirous of employing a midwife instead of a medical man; and as these occasions are not rare, some of the midwives having from fifteen to twenty private patients per month, it is not among the least of the advantages incident to the establishment of the Royal Maternity Charity, that it is the means of keeping up a class of respectable, intelligent midwives for such emergencies.

Viewing the question financially, the argument is greatly in favor of home attendance. The thousands that are benefited could not at anything like the expense, if at all, be received into the hospitals. The average cost of each patient is only 7s. 3d., and this charge includes not only medical attendance and medicine, but rent of office, printing, salaries, and every item connected with the management. No costly building absorbs the income, no patient can be refused for want of room, and a certificate of marriage is the only test of eligibility.

In a sanitary point of view, the success of the Charity has been remarkable. Two of the London Lying-in-Hospitals have lately been temporarily closed, to check the fever which was desolating the wards; but not a single case of that fatal disease exhibited itself during the past year; and among the Charity's numerous patients, out of 4,110 women attended in 1861, only eleven deaths from all causes are recorded: three of which were the result of previous organic disease, reducing the real number of casualties to eight, or one in 514 cases.

Should any of our lady readers desire to make themselves more perfectly acquainted with the details of this excellent and rational charity, they can procure reports and all information from the Secretary, at the office, 2, Chatham Place, Blackfriars, London, E. C.