i. That real penitents are wrongly placed in hospital service, because
their admission breaks down the standard which respectable women
who are hospital nurses feel (quite as keenly as their superiors
do in their own concerns) ought at once to restrain and to protect
those engaged in this very peculiar, very trying, and very exposed
work and life. (I have invariably observed that real penitents are
extra-prudish, and comparatively inefficient, in their hospital duty.
It will at once be perceived how inevitable this result is.)
ii. That sincere but unconfirmed penitents, in addition to the above,
are most dangerously and improperly placed in a situation, to them, of
very peculiar trial.
iii. That sham penitents, who unhappily abound, are dangerous
everywhere, extra-dangerous in hospitals, whether to superiors,
companions, or patients.
iv. That although the class must ever be a very mixed one, it is most
important to have a standard. Let it be necessary for every nurse to
enter hospital with a good character, and to leave it on losing it.
Deception, hypocrisy, and successful guilt will be found in hospitals,
as elsewhere; but the class must be raised, and therefore improved,
by requiring the condition of good character; though guilt may
occasionally mask itself behind it.
v. That although, for various and very differing reasons, the
certificates will be not unseldom untrustworthy, still the same
reasoning will apply. Upon the whole the tendency will be, by
requiring the condition of good character, to improve a class which,
containing, as it does, many well-conducted women, is sadly degraded
and contaminated by many vile ones.
vi. I do not overlook the fact that honest certificates, especially if
annually renewed, might give the matrons some perplexity, from reasons
which need not be enlarged upon. Still, it seems to me, it would be
well worth trying.