3. These persons know their sick, and, being told on coming on duty, of
any change, &c., are as much at home in their posts by night as others
are by day.
4. When it is found that a Sister cannot sleep by day, and, therefore,
that her health breaks, she is not allowed to finish the four weeks and
become ill, but is put to another duty and another Sister appointed to
the watch.
(Many a strong Nurse cannot sleep at day.)
5. The persons so appointed get into the way of it, if they stand it at
all, and the system is found a great relief to the whole house and a
great gain to the sick, in the place of another system of dividing the
night between two Sisters and two Men-Nurses, who each watch half of
the watch.
_Per contrà._
I. The great London hospitals are places very far from perfect: some
things may, please God, be, with time, patience, and extreme quietness,
very much improved; but some things will never be perfect and never can
be. But they are places where I do believe, and so far as I know, the
sick are cared for in a way that is done nowhere else. The proportion
of heavy cases in every London ward, cannot, I think, be met except by
having a watcher in each. An English physician or surgeon would not
consider that his cases could otherwise receive the attendance and the
watching, the observation of possible change and prevention of possible
mischief, which they ought to receive.