nnobling ministry. In 1870, the date of the founding
of the Metropolitan and National Nursing Association by the Duke of
Westminster, James Hinton, in a paper in the _Cornhill Magazine_ on
"Nursing as a Profession," called attention to this new activity as a
trained service for women: "It is considered, though an excellent and
most respectable vocation, not one for a lady to follow as a means
of livelihood, unless she is content to sink a little in the social
scale.... Can any one think it is, in its own nature, more menial than
surgery? Could any occupation whatever call more emphatically for the
qualities characteristically termed professional, or better known as
those of the gentleman and the lady?... Here is a profession, truly
a profession, equal to the highest in dignity, open to woman in which
she does not compete with man."

Nursing no longer has to be defended as a suitable occupation for the
sex, for in its ranks can be found women of all grades of society; it
is one of the levelling influences of modern times, as well as one of
the most elevating of callings. No other sphere of public activity
has opened up to woman in which she has not met the opposition of
men. Nursing is a striking instance of the modern trend toward
specialization, which is but another term for professionalism.
Consonant with the whole spirit of the times, the amateur nurse was
relegated to the background by the modern trained nurse.

Society, however, has not taken so kindly to women's departure in
another direction: women as physicians are still regarded as a
novelty and a doubtful expedient. Nursing created a profession, and so
conservative sentiment did not have to be met; but the old faculties
of law, medicine, and theology had been so long intrenched in their
privileged places in relation to society that any attempt to widen
their confines or to enlist their hospitality toward innovations is
met with the resistance which custom and precedent always present to
novelty. Although their progress into the medical profession has been
slow, yet the nineteenth century records the opening of this calling
to women. During the last quarter of the century women were admitted
to the ranks of accredited practitioners. Yet, the vocation is not a
novel one for the sex, for in the remote past they have been looked
upon as possessing knowledge and skill in the treatment of diseases;
but, as we have seen, the woman who followed the art of healing as