ENERGETIC INVALIDS
(CCECIL WOODHAM -SMITH’S BBC talk, They Stayed in Bed, was a surprising choice for 8.45 on a Sunday evening, but a brilliant one. Mrs. Wood--ham-Smith recalled the fruitful invalidity of several eminent Victorians. Florence Nightingale, she reminded us, Stayed in bed for more than fifty years, and got through a staggering amount of work there. Charles Darwin stayed on his sofa nearly all his life, tended by his wife, of whom it was said that the perfect nurse had married the perfect patient; he worked only two hours a day, never went to meetings, saw only the people he wanted to see. She also recalled Elizabeth Barrett in her ivydarkened, dusty, spider-webbed bedroom, and Harriet Martineau, who stayed in bed for six years until she was cured by
mesmerism. It was the only way, Mrs. Wood-ham~-Smith said, that they could find the solitude they needed. If this implies a conscious choice it is no doubt an over-simplification, but the unconscious motive was probably as she said, and it worked. It would not work today. Psychosomatic medicine would See through their. fainting fits, dizzy spells and sinking feelings. Perhaps we are short of a few Florence Nightingales and Charles Darwins because of it.
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19560921.2.34.1
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
New Zealand Listener, Volume 35, Issue 894, 21 September 1956, Page 18
Word count
Tapeke kupu
204ENERGETIC INVALIDS New Zealand Listener, Volume 35, Issue 894, 21 September 1956, Page 18
Using this item
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
Material in this publication is protected by copyright.
Are Media Limited has granted permission to the National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa to develop and maintain this content online. You can search, browse, print and download for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Are Media Limited for any other use.
Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
Copyright in the Denis Glover serial Hot Water Sailor published in 1959 is owned by Pia Glover. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this serial and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the Listener. You can search, browse, and print this serial for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Pia Glover for any other use.
Log in