|Nurse         |Nurse      |
|(not Domestic |(Domestic  |
|Servant)      |Servant)   |
-----------------------------------------------+------------

--+-----------+
Great Britain and Islands in the British Seas. |    25,466    |   21,017  |
England and Wales.                             |    23,751    |   18,945  |
Scotland.                                      |     1,543    |    1,922  |
Islands in the British Seas.                   |       172    |      150  |
1st Division.  London.                          |     7,807    |    5,061  |
2nd Division.  South Eastern.                   |     2,878    |    2,514  |
3rd Division.  South Midland.                   |     2,286    |    1,252  |
4th Division.  Eastern Counties.                |     2,408    |      959  |
5th Division.  South Western Counties.          |     3,055    |    1,737  |
6th Division.  West Midland Counties.           |     1,225    |    2,383  |
7th Division.  North Midland Counties.          |     1,003    |      957  |
8th Division.  North Western Counties.          |       970    |    2,135  |
9th Division.  Yorkshire.                       |     1,074    |    1,023  |
10th Division.  Northern Counties.              |       402    |      410  |
11th Division.  Monmouth and Wales.             |       343    |      614  |
-----------------------------------------------+------------

--+-----------+

NOTE AS TO THE NUMBER OF WOMEN EMPLOYED AS NURSES IN GREAT BRITAIN.

25,466 were returned, at the census of 1851, as nurses by profession, 39,139 nurses in domestic service,[40] and 2,822 midwives.  The numbers of different ages are shown in table A, and in table B their distribution over Great Britain.

To increase the efficiency of this class, and to make as many of them as possible the disciples of the true doctrines of health, would be a great national work.

For there the material exists, and will be used for nursing, whether the real “conclusion of the matter” be to nurse or to poison the sick.  A man, who stands perhaps at the head of our medical profession, once said to me, I send a nurse into a private family to nurse the sick, but I know that it is only to do them harm.

Now a nurse means any person in charge of the personal health of another.  And, in the preceding notes, the term nurse is used indiscriminately for amateur and professional nurses.  For, besides nurses of the sick and nurses of children, the numbers of whom are here given, there are friends or relations who take temporary charge of a sick person, there are mothers of families.  It appears as if these unprofessional nurses were just as much in want of knowledge of the laws of health as professional ones.