Page:A short history of nursing - Lavinia L Dock (1920).djvu/339

Nursing in the World War 323 touchy as t^he soldier in full health who is on duty as ward orderly ; no petty official in civil life is more tenacious of his small authority than the army sergeant wardmaster, or more unwilling to see a woman placed over him, no matter how much she may know of her subject, or how little he himself knows. As letters came home from the front explaining the nondescript position of nurses, no one knowing whether they were "officers or privates or hired extras," women in New York organized a com- mittee to secure rank for army nurses. Mrs. Harriet Stanton Blatch went to Washington to lay the matter before the Surgeon-General, who was of the opinion that the British regulation might suffice. But when, a little later, this was incorporated into the United States army regula- tions, it had been altered by the following phrase : . . members of the Army Nurse Corps are to be regarded as having authority in matters per- taining to their professional duties (the care of the sick and wounded) . . , . " This new wording "drew the teeth" of the British regulation by allowing the contention that the nurse controlled only the bodily care of the patient while the wardmaster still ruled in general ward management, supplies, ventilation, cleanli-