In England, there seems to be a strong persuasion that some time must elapse, and perhaps a generation of doctors must pass away, before the ministration of female nurses in military hospitals can become a custom, or even an unquestioned good.  No rational person can doubt what a blessing it would be to the patients to have such nurses administer nourishment, when the rough orderlies would not have discernment or patience to give the frequent spoonful when the very life may hang upon it.  Nobody doubts that wounds would be cleansed which otherwise go uncleansed,—­that much irritation and suffering would be relieved which there are otherwise no hands to undertake.  Nobody doubts that many lives would be saved in every great hospital from the time that fevered frames and the flickerings of struggling vitality were put under the charge of the nurses whom Nature made.  But the difficulties and risks are great.  On the whole, it seems to be concluded by those who know best, that only a few female nurses should be admitted into military and naval hospitals:  that they should be women of mature age and ascertained good sense, thoroughly trained to their business:  that they should be the women who have been, or who would be, the head nurses in other hospitals, and that they should be paid on that scale:  that they should have no responsibility,—­being wholly subject to the surgeons in ward affairs, and to their own superintendent in all others:  that no enthusiasts or religious devotees should be admitted,—­because that very qualification shows that they do not understand the business of nursing:  that everything that can be as well done by men should be done by trained orderlies:  that convalescents should, generally speaking, be attended on by men,—­and if not, that each female nurse of convalescents should have a hundred or so in her charge, whereas of the graver cases forty or fifty are as many as one nurse can manage, with any amount of help from orderlies.  These proposals give some idea of what is contemplated with regard to the ordinary nurses in a General Military Hospital.  The superintendent of the nurses in each institution must be a woman of high quality and large experience.  And she will show her good sense, in the first place, by insisting on a precise definition of her province, that there maybe no avoidable ill-will on the part of the medical officers, and no cause of contention with the captain of service, or whatever the administrator of the interior may be called.  She must have a decisive voice in the choice of her nurses; and she will choose them for their qualifications as nurses only, after being satisfied as to their character, health, and temper.