The Scientific Spirit of the Age, and Other Pleas and DiscussionsCobbe, Frances Power
Religion
The Scientific Spirit of the Age, and Other Pleas and Discussions
Cobbe, Frances Power
Knowledge, Sociology of; Philosophy and religion; Science -- Moral and ethical aspects
And of all this the entire working class of the nation is systematically
deprived! Formerly it was only in cases of extreme poverty, where the
crowded lodging was an altogether unfit place to nurse the sufferer,
that recourse was had to the public Hospitals. Now it has become the
invariable practice the moment that illness, even of non-infectious
kind, declares itself, to send straight away to the hospital artisans,
small tradesmen, and farmers from their own comfortable abodes, servants
from the large and airy houses where they have labored faithfully, and
even children from their mothers’ arms. It is not a mere matter of
conjecture that such a custom must do harm and weaken the sense of
family obligation. It is a fact that it has done so already, and is
doing so more every day. Sons and daughters place their blind and
palsied parents in asylums; wives send their husbands in a decline to
Brompton Hospital; and it has become a surprising piece of filial
devotion if a daughter remain at home to take care of a bed-ridden
mother, even when her means fully permit of such sacrifice of time. What
deadly injury is all this to the hearts of men, women, and children!
Of course Hospitals have their important uses. No one denies it. Some
cases of disease and some degrees of poverty require such institutions.
But this does not justify the monstrous over-use of them now in vogue.
Even for the class whose homes are too crowded to admit of nursing being
properly or safely done in them, I cannot but think that small Cottage
Hospitals, where the wife or mother or daughter would be free to perform
her natural duties by the bedside, and where she would be shown how best
to perform them, would be infinitely preferable for every reason, moral
and physical, to our present Palaces of Pain. Excellent also in all ways
will be the plan of Nurses provided for the poor in their own homes by
the Queen’s wise gift of the balance of her Women’s Jubilee Fund. The
secret of the excessive resort to Hospitals is of course the
encouragement to patients given by the medical schools attached to them,
for the sake of obtaining a large supply of “clinical material.”
Lastly, we come to speak of the Education of the Religious Emotions. We
have already referred to the outbursts of contagious enthusiasm in the
Crusades and Revivals. It remains to say a few words respecting the
various sources of religious emotion, at first and second hand.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account