ldiers, and secured
the respect and approbation of the surgeons.

In the Austrian war of 1866 two hundred and eighty-two deaconesses were
in the hospitals and on the battle-fields, fifty-eight of whom were from
Kaiserswerth. The Franco-Prussian war of 1870 was on a greater scale,
and afforded wider opportunities for the unselfish, priceless labors of
these Christian nurses. Neatly eight hundred deaconesses, sent from more
than thirty mother-houses, cared for the sick and wounded in the camp
hospitals or on the field. The willingness of a number of boards of
administration to release sisters who were in their service, and the
voluntary offers of other women to take their places, enabled
Kaiserswerth to send two hundred and twenty of the number. Their
experience in improvising hospitals, in aiding the surgeon in his
amputations, and in ministering to the wounded and dying, throws a
tender glow of compassionate sympathy over the terrible scenes of
war.[41]

The importance of trained deaconesses in times of war is now well
understood by the military authorities at Berlin. In the winter of 1887,
when war seemed imminent, the directors of the German deaconess houses
were summoned by the government to a conference at the German capital to
take measures for supplying nurses in case war should be declared.

Deaconesses are now thoroughly incorporated into the religious and
social features of the German national life, as must be admitted by any
one who has weighed the facts that have been given.

The example of Kaiserswerth has been far-reaching; the mission of
Fliedner, that simple-hearted, true-souled, practical, energetic pastor,
has been wonderfully successful.

In this rapid sketch I have said but little of the hinderances he met,
nothing of the ridicule which at first attacked him unsparingly. He paid
no heed to these obstacles, and why should we waste time in detailing
them? Steadfastly and undeviatingly he went forward toward the end he
had in view; that is, to restore in all its aspects the devoted
disciplined services of Christian women to the Church. He passed away
from life October 5, 1864, leaving the great establishment that he had
watched over in the charge of his son-in-law, Pastor Disselhoff, and
other members of his family.

The institution has become an imposing mass of building, forming an
almost absurd contrast to the little garden house, the cradle of the
whole establishment, which is still standing i