ABSTRACT
Modern nursing emerged as a distinct entity only during the last 150 years or so in Germany, England, Scandinavia and North America. It became an idea so formidable, and so seemingly inevitable, that nursing now encircles the world. The nursing I speak of is the modern, recognizable, standardized occupation of nursing. In turn, modern nursing rests, however uneasily, on a time-immemorial idea of nursing or mutual aid among humans that seems to date from ancient, even prehistoric, times. Whether modern or ancient, nursing deals with birth and death, health and illness; it is ubiquitous and essential. Those who study the history of nursing have a broad field indeed, and several audiences for their musings.
