Page:A short history of nursing - Lavinia L Dock (1920).djvu/246

230 A Short History of Nursing ties in this new field, agreed to open the doors of the college to qualified nurses, and to place at their disposal whatever courses seemed to fit their needs. The only condition was that the Society of Super- intendents should supply and maintain the special courses dealing with hospital and training school work. In 1899 the Course in Hospital Economics, as it was then called, was opened, two students forming the first class. One of the students, Anna Alline, remained on for several years in the college, taking general supervision of the Hospital Economics group, teaching home nursing classes, and helping in many ways to keep alive and foster what was generally considered, in those early days, to be a somewhat daring experiment. But for her patient devotion, it is quite possible that the whole plan might have fallen through, as the classes were at first small, and the general interest in higher edu- cation for nurses was not very keen. Members of the Hospital Economics Committee faithfully came to the college year after year, at their own expense, to give lectures to the students, and the Society of Superintendents raised the necessary funds to pay for the other incidental expenses of the course. In 1907 Miss Nutting, who had been one of the lecturers in the course from the beginning, was