reports that we have heard that large numbers of League members do not intend to be present, may prove to be untrue.

The demands which the different departments of Public Health are making on the nurses of the country are so important to the health of the people, in a broader sense, and so alarming, as concerns the care of the individuals who will continue to be seriously ill in their homes, that they require most serious consideration from the whole teaching body and not from a few.

Plans for making our training schools for nurses more attractive to young women, in the way of shorter working hours and better and more attractive living conditions, must be thrashed out, that the whole country may go forward on uniform lines.

Before another legislative period, we should have formulated definite plans for the training of attendants, embodying certain principles which should be included in all the bills and not, as this year, have every state going forward on lines different from those of every other state. Unless we are going to lead the action of the country in such matters, it seems as if the usefulness of the League were over,and again we want to say that such questions should be settled by the League as a whole and not by a few of its members.

LEFT-HANDEDNESS

In Notes from the Medical Press, Miss Scovil gives us the opinion of a French writer to the effect that children should be trained in the use of both hands so that they might not be helpless in the case of accident to one of them. This is quite contrary to the teaching of Dr. George M. Gould, who has made a special study of the subject and who feels strongly that children should be allowed to develop as nature indicates, either as right-handed or left-handed persons. He says that the difference dates from early infancy and that the brain, itself, is the source of the use of the hand, also that we are not only right-handed, but right-eyed, right-footed, etc. Dr. Gould is an oculist and has studied the subject in connection with the development of the eye and its uses. He believes that a person originally left-handed, but trained to be right-handed, is never as deft or skillful as he would have been if left alone. The hesitancy or clumsiness exists in varying degree in such persons and shows itself sometimes in slowness of brain action as well as in awkwardness. Six per cent of people are normally left-handed; the trait is not hereditary. School nurses and obstetrical nurses have an opportunity of teaching this theory to parents and of helping preserve to the child the best use of its hands. Those interested in knowing more of Dr. Gould's theories will like to read his book entitled, "Righthandedness and Lefthandedness."

PURCHASE AND INSTALLATION OF STANDARD

EQUIPMENT'

BY MARY L. KEITH, R.N.

Superintendent Rochester General Hospital, Rochester, N. Y.

On account of the war, the influenza and other exigencies, I had no opportunity for exchanging views with others on standard equipment; what follows outlines a personal experience, only.

In 1914, I did not know what standardization meant. That year we completed a group of new buildings in which were two pavilions of five stories each. When these buildings were shown to the state training school inspector she said, "What splendid buildings to standardize." Being a slow thinker I was wondering what she meant, when she repeated the statement and added, "They are ideal. Don't you think so?" I hesitatingly answered, "Perhaps they are. I hadn't thought much about it." She said, "Won't you think about it seriously?" I said I would and I did, and the more I thought about it the more I wondered what the game was and how it was played. Soon after, I was talking with a group of girls from Teachers College. They were discussing a reunion program. One of them said, "Everything is standardization these days." I asked what standardization was, as applied to equipment, and the answer was, "O, no! You can't fool us that way. You know more about it than we do." I thought if it were a matter of such common knowledge I had best be careful how I displayed my ignorance and so kept quiet.

In 1916, we attended the National League meeting, in New Orleans, where the Gulf Stream is so blue and the Mississippi so yellow, and where our friends did so much for us. At that meeting, standardization was fully and carefully presented and I found that I did know something of it, though I didn't know that I knew. I found that we had practised it in spots without knowing that it was modern efficiency; I saw that our new buildings, in which each floor was like every other floor, was a standardizing of floors; and I then saw how perfectly they were adapted to standardizing the equipment. As every work room was like every other work room and every diet kitchen like every other diet kitchen, I realized how convenient it would be to have the appliances the same and kept in the same place on every floor. The poisons could be kept in the same place in the medicine closets, the name and address would be on every hot water bottle that went to the laundry, and we would even know how many Written for the New York State League of Nursing Education, December, 1918.

gowns and slippers belonged to each ward. It was a pleasant thought, but before I had occasion to express it, our superintendent of nurses came in with a quiet air of determination. Her manner indicated that she was about to start an offensive and do or die in the attempt, but her voice said very quietly and politely, "I wish we could do something about standardizing our equipment." I suppose I gave her one of the surprises of her young life by answering, "A perfectly splendid idea. Let us do it." So the good work began.

Act I. was to prepare lists and decide what should constitute the equipment in each ward. For instance, beds, tables, and chairs were easy; then for the serving room of a ward of twenty-six beds, we decided (on paper) how many plates, cups, trays, forks, and spoons were needed to run that ward; whether it should have one dish pan or two; an egg beater, an egg shaker-or both; whether it needed vinegar, flour, mustard, tea, coffee, nutmeg, and vanilla, and in what quantities; we decided on the number of sauce pans and we even allowed a basket for commerce between floors at night via the dumbwaiter shaft. Whatever was outlined for one serving room, was to be duplicated in four other serving rooms that provided for the same number and class of patients. Another standard was specified for the five kitchens of the private room pavilion, and still another for the maternity department. The work-room equipment was more difficult. The surgical wards needed more basins and instruments; the medical wards, more bathtubs and thermometers; for the men's wards, pajamas; for the women's wards, kimonas; for the children's ward, special equipment not needed in the general wards. Private rooms needed better dishes and more of them, more vases for flowers, and white blankets instead of gray.

In order to lessen future friction, our head nurses were invited to submit lists and were present when they were discussed,-not always in perfect harmony. The heads of departments worked many hours on these specifications.

Just before the breaking point was reached, and just before the stenographer (who had given notice) actually quit, we said: "This is the best we can do."

Act II. was to consult catalogues, select our patterns and write many letters. For instance, what is the price of basin No. 139 in dozen lots? Is it in stock? Will it continue in stock? How soon could it be supplied? Will you please send us samples? The same formula applied to pitchers, jars and all articles of enamel ware, the same with glassware, the same with rubber goods, and so on through the list. There was much excitement when the samples arrived. The pus basin which looked all right in the picture proved to be too large, the vomitus