men, the journeymen of Robert de Luzarches and his successor, would seem, indeed, to have inspired others, who have been at their best here, down to the days of Louis the Fourteenth. It prompted, we may think, a high level of execution, through many revolutions of taste in such matters: in the marvellous furniture of the choir, for instance, like a whole wood, say a thicket of old hawthorn, with its curved topmost branches spared, slowly transformed by the labour of a whole family of artists, during fourteen years, into the stalls, in number one hundred and ten, with nearly four thousand figures. Yet they are but on a level with the Flamboyant carved and coloured enclosures of the choir, with the histories of John the Baptist, whose face-bones are here preserved, and of Saint Firmin-popular saint, who protects the houses of Amiens from fire. Even the screens of forged iron around the sanctuary, work of the seventeenth century, appear actually to soar, in their way, in concert with the airy Gothic structure; to let the daylight pass as it will; to have come, they too, from smiths, odd as it may seem at just that time, with some touch of inspiration in them. In the beginning of the fifteenth century they had reared against a certain bald space of wall, between the great portal and the western 'rose,' an organ, a lofty, many-chambered, veritable house of church-music, rich in azure and gold, finished above at a later day, not incongruously, in the quaint, pretty manner of Henri-Deux. And those who are interested in the curiosities of ritual, of the old provincial Gallicanuses,' will be surprised to find one where they might least have expected it. The reserved Eucharist still hangs suspended in a pyx, formed like a dove, in the midst of that lamentable 'glory' of the eighteenth century in the central bay of the sanctuary, all the poor, gaudy, gilt rays converging towards it. There are days in the year in which the great church is still literally filled with reverent worshippers, and if you come late to service you push the doors in vain against the closely serried shoulders of the good people of Amiens, one and all in black for church-holiday attire. Then, one and all, they intone the Tantum ergo (did it ever sound so in the Middle Ages?) as the Eucharist, after a long procession, rises once more into its resting-place.

If the Greeks, as at least one of them says, really believed there could be no true beauty without bigness, that thought certainly is most specious in regard to architecture; and the thirteenth-century Church of Amiens is one of the three or four largest buildings in the world, out of all proportion to any Greek building, both in that and in the multitude of its external sculpture. The chapels of the nave are embellished without by a double range of single figures, or groups, commemorative of the persons, the mysteries, to which they are respectively dedicated the gigantic form of Christopher, the Mystery of the Annunciation.

The builders of the church seem to have projected no very

WOMEN AS OFFICIAL INSPECTORS

THE demand that is being made in various quarters at the present time for the appointment of women as inspectors in institutions where those of their own sex are largely employed and maintained, is no new one, nor can it be said to be unreasonable, as it will be my endeavour in this article to prove.

When we remember that the history of our present poor-law dates its beginning barely more than fifty years ago, we are justified in saying that the desire for women to be employed in the oversight of women and girls, is no recent demand, for we find it was urged in the same words that may be used to-day, as long ago as 1861, when a committee of the House of Commons sat on a commission of inquiry as to matters and management concerning the poor-law. It may be useful, and not without interest, to give some of the statements then made, for blue-books are not accessible, nor attractive, to many, and are studied probably but by few, even of those who may be interested in the subject under investigation. So numerous indeed are these inquiries at the present time, and so voluminous the records of them, that we can hardly wonder if they do not receive the attention which they often deserve.

At the committee already referred to, after evidence had been taken as to the condition of the sick, and more especially incurables, in workhouses, the question was asked, 'Can you suggest to us any remedy for what you consider to be the inadequate consideration for the wants and necessities of women in workhouses generally'? To which it was replied, I consider that a greater supervision by women would be the only remedy for it. Women should be allowed to take a greater part in the management of workhouses, and in the inspection of them. If there could be a woman inspector, whether from a central body, or locally, or if there could be somebody to share the responsibility of the matron, that would be the only plan to improve either the household details, or the management of the women and children.' Again the question was asked, 'Would you prefer, if you could get it, to have a paid woman as an inspector, who should be responsible in the same way as a male inspector is responsible'? To which I replied, that a paid inspector, a woman

with the authority of the Central Board, in the same way as there are inspectors at present, was compatible with the other suggestion of a Committee of Ladies appointed by the Guardians.'1 I was then asked if I had ever taken the opinion of any officials on the subject of lady inspectors, and I replied that 'several gentlemen had said they considered it would be very desirable that there should be women inspectors.'

The subject of women guardians was then introduced, and the question was asked by Lord Salisbury (then Lord Robert Cecil) if ratepayers would be willing to elect ladies. Fourteen years afterwards the first woman guardian was elected by the Kensington ratepayers, and now that thirty-two years have elapsed, we are able thankfully to record that the advance of public opinion has placed no fewer than 180 women upon the Boards of England, Wales and Scotland.

But we must return to our present subject of women as inspectors. In 1888 there was appointed another committee of the House of Lords, to consider the working of the Poor Law, when the subject of inspectors was again brought forward, and, in reply to Lord Aberdeen, I again urged that a woman should be appointed to perform the duties of inspector of workhouse infirmaries, the special subject of consideration being the care of the sick. I may be allowed again to repeat the words then spoken. Nurses would have greater courage in explaining their wants and grievances to her than to a man; besides which, there were many matters connected with a hospital which a woman who was a trained nurse, and at the same time acting as inspector, would be able to understand and inquire into.'

And, once more, the same evidence was given, and the same opinion urged, at the committee of the House of Lords on hospitals, in 1891; this opinion, it may be added, being endorsed by the report of the members, subsequently issued.

When the matter was afterwards named in the House of Commons, the only objection raised to the suggestion was the usual one and, as we believe, the only one that has been made, that of cost; and the President of the Local Government Board added that he considered the further extension of lady guardians would answer the same purpose.

But let us look for a moment at the validity of this last argument. Valuable indeed as is the work and influence of women as guardians, the need which is now being urged for them as inspectors is more. particularly for the care of the sick, and how can we expect the average woman guardian to be specially competent to perform this duty? The objection as to the present staff of inspectors, admirable as they may be for some of their general duties, is that they are not

1 This suggestion and hope was fulfilled last year, by order of the Local Government Board, thirty-two years after.

qualified by education or training for a knowledge of what is required for sick wards and infirmaries, none (with the exception of the last and recent appointment), being of the medical profession. How should such persons be capable judges of the needs of the sick, or of the manner in which the nurses perform their duties towards them? It is, indeed, a strange anomaly that for the Metropolitan District alone, where the infirmaries are separate, and, in most instances, admirably worked hospitals, under the care of resident doctors and trained and educated women, there is a medical inspector of high ability, whose whole time is devoted to the frequent inspection of these twenty-four institutions; while in the country districts of all England only one such medical inspector is appointed! Can any other facts or arguments be needed to emphasise and enforce our demand for an addition to this limited amount of inspection of the more than six hundred unions in which the sick are to be found?

But we have not yet given all the reasons which demand this change and addition, the chief one being the recent and rapid growth of the reform as regards nursing which has taken place in our workhouse infirmaries, trained nurses being now demanded by a large proportion of the unions, which have at last been aroused to a conviction of the cruelty, to say nothing of the false economy, of the previous system of nursing by ignorant and degraded pauper women. I have said that nurses are now being demanded by more Boards of Guardians than can well be supplied with them; but let us ask (for it is an important question upon which our whole argument turns), under what conditions and circumstances do these women work in the country unions to which they are sent? In many cases, one is required to work alone, the numbers being too small for a second nurse, but the work may be hard and trying, and if any duties arise in the night, she has to perform them also, and she can rarely be spared from her duties; she is probably the first trained nurse who has been employed, and she finds that pretty nearly everything that she has been accustomed to consider essential for the care of the sick is lacking in her wards. But it may be asked, is she not acting under the matron of the workhouse, who will superintend her work, encourage her in it, and supply all her wants? We may indeed wish to believe that it were so, for then would her trying and difficult task be cheered at least by sympathy. But if we look at the facts, as they are daily being brought before us, we find too often the very reverse of this happy picture, though we willingly allow there are exceptions here and there. In the country unions there are to be found no matrons who have any knowledge of trained nursing, or who have the capacity for even judging of, or appreciating, a nurse's work. Too often, therefore, she is met with jealousy, and her efforts thwarted and misunderstood; orders are given which cannot be carried out, and the interference becomes intolerable; at the best, intelligent supervision

is lacking, and how can the nurse's work fail to degenerate, and herself to become demoralised, under such a system and such circumstances as these? So deeply were these results felt to be inevitable, that in the case of one association for providing trained nurses, a lady who is herself a trained nurse has been appointed as visitor of the nurses in the different unions to which they are sent, and her visits are looked forward to with the utmost hope and gratification. Her remarks and observations on the state of the wards she visits are most valuable, and confirm the conviction as to what a woman's eye and judgment would be capable of effecting if the plan were to be extended under official authority. It is impossible that gentlemen (at any rate those who are not medically trained) should have a knowledge or perception of all that is wanted for the sick, or that nurses should be able to tell them of their various needs, and it is not surprising that they do not do so: otherwise, how is it that we find still so many deficiencies, and even an entire absence of so much that is required in these wards? A high standard of nursing and efficiency can only be maintained by the inspection of qualified and competent persons, an inspection that is at present not given.

And here let me name one drawback to the successful results of the inspector's visits-viz. that they are, I believe, invariably accompanied by the master or matron of the workhouse, frequently the former; and how, I would ask, can there be any freedom of speech or communication from the nurse when this is the case? It must be indeed a brave and independent spirit in a young woman thus to speak in the presence of her superior, when complaints of deficiencies would probably be her theme. I would suggest that all inspectors should be at liberty to see the officers they visit, alone, without the presence of their superiors to check their freedom of speech. And again, can we expect that the condition of the patients and their beds can with propriety be examined by gentlemen who have never undertaken these duties in hospitals? Yet only too frequently the urgent need of such an inspection comes before us, in communications and revelations which could not possibly be given. in these pages.

But again it may be asked, do not the nurses work with and under the authority of the doctor appointed by the guardians for the care of the sick? It is true that there is such an officer in every union, but for various reasons they do not, and cannot, perform the duties of which we are urging the importance. The remuneration is small (the salary too often including the cost of medicines and all appliances), and it is not easy or popular for him to demand reforms of any kind from the authorities under whom he works. Those medical men who most value the trained nurses who carry out their orders would be the most willing to admit the desirability of a woman's inspection of their work.