Page:A short history of nursing - Lavinia L Dock (1920).djvu/315

Nursing in other Countries 299 Belgium, where Beguines and Catholic orders of specially picturesque types and considerable prac- tical ability had possessed the field, Belgium was the work of the English martyr- nurse, Edith Cavell, from the London hospital. In 1907 she was called to Brussels to estab- lish the Belgian School of Certificated ^ Edith Cavell Nurses. In 1909 Miss Cavell wrote a "Report on Nursing in Belgium" for the inter- national gathering of nurses in that year. She outlined the early efforts of Dr. Depolpe to teach nurses by lectures ; described the advanced meth- ods of Dr. Ley in elevating the training of nurses for the mental cases of hospitals; and pointed out the remarkably progressive attitude of the medical men generally, in Belgium, and their readiness to place trained Matrons in positions where they could organize and extend modern methods. She told how the influence of the medical profession had brought about state registration in 1908, and how this Act, though elementary, had stimulated standards in hospital work. The religious orders had accepted it readily, and were then agitating for a central school with a thorough schedule of practical and theoretical teaching. Miss Cavell described her own school, and foreign nurses after- wards visited it and other Belgian institutions,