A nurse should be attentive to the requirements of physician and patient, for she sustains an intimate relation to both. She should observe the directions of the physician, and faithfully perform them. She should note all the symptoms of the patient, and do everything in her power to promote comfort and recovery. She should anticipate the wishes, and not cause the patient to ask for everything which is desired. So far as practicable, let the wishes be gratified. The senses of the sick often become morbidly acute, and those things which in health would pass unnoticed, in sickness are so magnified as to occasion annoyance and vexation. Sick persons are not all alike, and the peculiarities of each must be studied separately. The nurse must be _kind_, but _firm_, and not yield to such whims of the patient as may be detrimental to recovery; neither must she arouse dislike or anger by opposition, but endeavor to _win_ the patient from all delusions. The feelings of the patient should never be trifled with, for idealities become realities. The nurse should possess an inexhaustible store of patience. Disease affects the mind of the patient and fills it with strange delusions. The sick are often querulous, fretful, and unreasonable, and should be treated with kindness, forbearance, and sympathy. The nurse should always be cheerful, look on the bright side of every circumstance, animate them with encouragement, and inspire them with hope. Hope is one of the best of tonics. It stimulates the flagging, vital energies, and imparts new life to the weak and exhausted forces. Gloom, sadness, and despondency depress the vital forces and lead to death. We have seen patients rapidly sinking, who had given up all hope, and were quietly awaiting the coming of death, snatched, as it were, from its grasp, and restored to health, by words of cheer and encouragement. The nurse should possess _moral principles_, which alone can win the confidence of the patient. She should have judgment, circumspection, intelligence, forethought, alacrity, carefulness, and neatness. In a word she should exercise _common sense_.