American Red Cross Text-Book on Home Hygiene and Care of the Sick

Excerpt

INTRODUCTION

Health and sickness, at all times momentous factors in the welfare of our nation, now as never before are matters of vital importance. To win its victories both in peace and in war, the nation needs all its citizens with all their powers, and it is a matter of more than passing interest that, as conservative estimates show, at least three persons out of every hundred living in the United States are constantly incapacitated by serious sickness. In 1910 these seriously sick persons numbered more than 3,000,000. Even more significant, perhaps, is the fact that at least half of our national sickness could be prevented if knowledge and resources that we now possess were fully utilized.

The problem of sickness is by no means peculiar to our own day and generation. It has been a medical, a religious, and a social problem in every age. From the time of Job its meaning has baffled philosophers; from his day to ours thoughtful men have devoted their lives to searching for causes and cures. Yet before the middle of the last century little progress was made, either in scientific treatment or in prevention of disease.

The invention of the microscope first made possible a real understanding of sickness. Through the microscope a new world was revealed,—a world of the infinitely small, swarming with tiny forms of animal and vegetable life. No one, however, appreciated the significance of these hitherto invisible plants and animals until the latter part of the 19th century, when the great French savant, Pasteur, proved that little vegetable forms, now called bacteria, cause putrefaction and fermentation, and also certain diseases of animals and man. Pasteur's discoveries were carried still further by other scientists, with the result that bacteriology has revolutionized medicine, agriculture, and many industries, and has made possible the brilliant achievements of modern sanitary science. For the first time in history the prevention of epidemics has become possible, and sickness is no longer regarded as a punishment for sin.

Actual care of the sick, both in homes and in hospitals, has always been one of the responsibilities of women. The first general public hospital was built in Rome in the 4th century after Christ by Fabiola, a patrician lady. There she nursed the sick with her own hands, and from her day to ours extends an unbroken line of devoted women, handing down through the centuries their tradition of compassionate nursing service. It remained for Florence Nightingale, however, to give to the training its technical and scientific foundation, and thus to found the profession of nursing. As a result of her work, effectiveness was added to the spirit of service, that spirit which inspires the modern nurse no less than in an earlier day it inspired the Sisters of Charity who died nursing the wounded on the battlefields of Poland.

But different generations have different needs, and to meet them the spirit of service must manifest itself in widely varying ways....