Abstract

In the characteristics and aim of district or visiting nurse work there may be said to be “nothing new.” It is a branch of nursing so well known to our profession that it is useless to dwell upon the purpose of the work. Graphic Figure. At the Congress of Nurses held in Chicago in 1893 the subject of this paper was given such complete and detailed deseription by women of years of experience in the work that it would be time misspent to take up that part of the subject, so well covered then. The facts and data of the present paper are largely statistical, and intended only as historical of the subject, and simply to show the growth of the work in various parts of the country in the last ten years. This philanthropy has now taken its place among the organized charities of modern times. Only a few years ago quite unknown, it is now operated successfully in almost every section of the country. It is a charity of which its promoters never tire; and noting its success and present steady growth, one often wonders why its initiatory stages had such uphill work.