there is some co-operation in comforting them. Now and then the reports are especially graphic, and we seem able actually to follow into the dingy back rooms of the infirm and aged, who, notwithstanding their scanty nourishment, and their grandchildren wishing them out of the way, live on till past 80, and whose one comfort in all the week is, as they say, the visit of our Bible-woman Nurse, with a word for their souls as well as their bodies.

We have trained with our Bible-women this year and in hospitals, 14 Nurses, and 8 have left us. The districts given up at present are Clerkenwell, St. Martin's Lane, Hoxton, Canning Town, Haggerstone, Swanscombe, South End.

Our new districts this year-Victoria Park, Bethnal Green, Holloway, Kingsland, Highgate, Belsize, Kensington, Caledonian Road, Chertsey.

GIFTS OF SUPPLIES.

The aid administered in food to the sick this year from our Mother House has been at the cost of £300 8s. 4d., and has consisted in meat, milk, eggs, and farinaceous nourishments, usually cooked by the Nurse, and taken by her to the patient. We have spent:

We add a few of our Nurse Reports to show the nature of

the agency:

A SCALDED CHILD AND OUR HOLLOWAY NURSE. John Gwas dreadfully scalded from the upsetting of a coffee-pot. He was a child of five years old, and as he was sitting down the boiling coffee flowed round him, so that many parts of his body were injured. His mother ran off with him to the hospital, but they had not a spare bed; and after having his wounds dressed, she had to bring him home again. Her husband had left her some time previously, with five boys to provide for; and she had just now succeeded in getting three weeks' charing at Major B's, but how could she leave this poor suffering child?

"The landlady happened to know me," says Nurse "and came and asked me if I would look in and see if I could do anything for them." I went and unbandaged the wounds, and said, "Well, I think I can attend to him as well as if he went to the hospital; or, if you like it better, I will take him there every day for you, so that you may go to your work.” The woman was most thankful, and said, "I'll leave it all in your hands-do as you think best."

I went twice every day to dress his wounds with linseed oil and carbolic lotion, and gave him a little magnesia to cool him; kept him in bed, and made paddings to relieve the pressure on the worst parts; and in a fortnight he was able to be carried out of doors for a little air, and in another fortnight I hope he will be running about again. All this time the mother has not attended to him once, nor have I seen her since the first day, as she goes to work early in the morning and returns late in the evenings. She has left the child entirely

to me.

A CROUP CASE.

"Last Sunday evening I was called to another poor child, three years old, who was seized with croup. The doctor had given her emetics, but they were of no use, and when he was fetched again, he said, 'The child will die; there is just one chance if you will allow me to do it, by opening the windpipe.' The parents gave consent, and he and his assistant performed the operation, and inserted a tube into the opening, which

would want cleansing with a feather every ten minutes, and taking out and replacing once in two hours. The mother said she could not do it, and the neighbours would not touch it, so the doctor thought it had better not have been done; but knowing me, he told them to go and fetch me, and mention his name, and he knew I would come; so although it is against our rule to sit up at night, I could not refuse. I felt very nervous when I found what was required, as I had never had such a case before, but I did it first while the doctor was there, under his direction, and he kindly said he could not have done it better. The poor child is going on satisfactorily, and the parents are so thankful. They say the doctor and I together have saved their child's life. The tube will not be removed permanently for a fortnight, but the danger seems now to be past."

NURSE M'S CASE.

When I

"I VISITED," says Nurse M, "Mrs. P--——, a widow of 78 or more. Found her quite helpless from dirt and disease. The Bible-woman and I had both tried to get in many times, but could not gain admittance; but one morning, finding the door a little open, I pushed it farther and went in. saw the state she was in, I said, 'I should like to cleanse you and make you comfortable.' To this she strongly objected, and said she wanted nothing done for her; but I answered, 'Well, then, I must go to the relieving officer and have you removed, as I cannot allow you to remain in this dirty state.'

"She then consented to my washing her, which I did. While doing so her daughter, who lives across the street, and two other women came to look on, but I told them they had better go home and make their own homes tidy than stand looking at me. The people about there are the dirtiest I ever met with. They are principally costermongers, sweeps, dustmen, &c., and all seem dirty and drunken together. After I had washed her I said, 'I think I must attend to your head.' It was in a sad state; it seemel as though no brush or comb

had touched it for twenty years. I cut as much of her hair off as possible, which I need not say was swarming with vermin, and the back of the head eaten into holes by them. I then fetched a box of ointment and rubbed into it, and poulticed the wounds to draw the vermin out. Her finger-nails were halfan-inch long, and grimed with dirt; I cut them, and well washed her hands. And when it was all done she was very thankful. 'God bless you,' she said, 'a thousand times, for coming to me!' Her daughter stood looking at me,

room.

so I told her she must clean the room, which she did after that. This case receives 3s. from the parish, but pays 2s. 6d. for her How she is supported I cannot tell, unless by some visitors from the church occasionally looking in and helping her, and the neighbours sometimes take her a little. I made her a cup of cocoa, which warmed her beautifully, she said." From the same Nurse:

"Mrs. P.'s is a dreadful cancer case, but very different from the last, for she is very clean in herself and her little room. A married daughter lives with her, and is very kind to her, and keeps her very clean. She suffers most severely. I often find her deluged in blood, which bursts from the wound at different times. She is so thankful for the lotion and wadding and the attention that I can give her. Her husband is much afflicted, and can do but little work. They are very poor; 2s. 6d. was given to-day for this case."

Nurse T's Case.-Mr. B—.

He cannot take

"This poor man has abscesses all over his back and hips, and is in a sad state. He cannot lie excepting on his face, therefore cannot read as he used to do. It is such a comfort to him for me or the Bible-woman to read to him. He wants a great deal of attention, for the discharge pours away continually, and the only wonder is that he is still alive. anything solid, but beef-tea and an egg beaten up with milk occasionally is all the nourishment he can take. He often says, "I cannot read, but I have been talking with Jesus and He talks to me.' He is a dear Christian man, most willing to go, but says he trys from his heart to say, 'Not my will but thine be done.' He is waiting patiently, and knows Jesus will take him when he is ready. This case had 2s. 6d. relief this morning."

Nurse R- -'s Case.

"Mr. S. This poor man died last Saturday. On Thursday when I went in his face was beaming with joy. He said he had got an answer to his prayers, that his sins were all forgiven, and he felt it in his soul. His joy was very great. On Friday he called all his relatives around him, and begged them to turn to the Lord and not to leave it to a death-bed, saying, 'I am in too much pain now if I had it to do, but I know it is all done for me, and I am safe in Jesus.' On Saturday morning he said, 'I am going, going!' I said, 'Where?' 'Oh,' he said, 'not to a little room like this, but to a mansion prepared for me by the Saviour.' He could not bear the Bible-woman or me to be away from him. Mrs. G-sat up with him on Friday night, as his wife is expecting every day to be confined. She is a tidy woman, and has been a dressmaker, and says she will now turn to the Lord. She never saw such a change in anyone as in her husband. They have been married seven years, and he ill four, and during the last three years has only worked one week."

Another Nurse says:—

"I have a patient quite disabled from rheumatism, and her husband failing with softening of the brain. He lost the sight of one eye in a storm at sea, and was afterwards obliged to have it taken out. He had been in the workhouse for some time, but when they talked of sending him to Colney Hatch he could not bear it, and came home again. He is very harmless, but often spends half the night in wandering about the streets. His wife is a quiet Christian woman, and bears with great patience all she has to endure from him as well as her own trying illness."

Nurse seems to go most cheerfully about her work, and says the more there is to do the better she likes it; that God strengthens her for it, and blesses her in it.

OUR DORMITORY HOUSE.

THIS house in Parker Street, Little Queen Street, continues to be known and valued as a temporary home for steady servants until they obtain places; but we were sorry, on a late occasion,