Page:A short history of nursing - Lavinia L Dock (1920).djvu/82

66 A Short History of Nursing provided in abundance. The accounts of their hospital administration show thorough organiza- tion. The chief director made rounds with the physicians, and with his assistants supervised all the various housekeeping departments. Instruc- tion was not overlooked. Every day a staff physi- cian lectured on anatomy, and once a week on clinical medicine, for the benefit of the younger physicians and nursing Brothers. Barber-sur- geons, appointed to men's wards, seem to have been entrusted with many procedures now taken over by women nurses. Patients who were needy received clothing and food when they left the wards. We have pointed out the important part taken by the military nursing orders in developing army Beginnings nursing on a high plane of excellence. of organ- xhe order of St. John also at an early ized relief in war and date brought organization into the calamity work of relief at times of natural cal- amities, and gave an example of efficiency on this line in 1783, at the time of an earthquake in Sicily. The account of their services then and the way they took charge of the situation reads Hke a chapter from modern Red Cross relief work. It is therefore not surprising that representatives of the Knights of St. John appeared at the Geneva