MOUNTED NURSES.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9142, 18 July 1908, Page 4

MOUNTED NURSES.

The latest development of women's work in the field oi: nursing is an English corps of yeowomanry —to coin a word. Colonel Ricardo, A.A.G., of the Home District, inspected the corps in London recently, and declared that he did not know there was anything like it in the world. The declaration was ambiguoin, of course, but the colonel meant it is a compliment. "Now, when a soldier like Colonel Ricaivlo takes the trouble to go and inspect twenty-five girls, dressed in red, gold and blue uniforms, who ride horses, and then asks them to come totheß.M. Tourna sunt to see the exhibition, with a view to their giving a display iuxt year at the great annual show of the Na/y and Army, Imagine there,must be a great, deal in these mount :J nurses from a great many points of view, says a writer in the London "Daily Mail." "The corps is the idea of Captain Baker, an old Lifeguardaman, and an enthusiast about physical culture. Tie girls are taught to ride, to di'ill, arid to nurse. Gx as I did, and let them tie you in bandages and hoist you on to their horses and ride away with you. Go and see the discipline, the self-reliance, the splendid physical strength and health that is given to them." They are said to sit their horses like old cavalry men, and to walk with a delightfully easy gait. The question, of coursf, arises whether such a corps would be of any use in war. Could mounted nurses follow the troops? It is contended that every available horse would be wanted for fighting and transport work. It would be impossible to send them to assist the wounded in warfare against savages. But the writer thinks that there is room for mounted nurses ;'n tie battlefields of Europe. A clever nurse, ha says, can often do a doctor's work.