94 A Short History of Nursing this period, and though it was now endowed with an ampler authority in the secular hospitals than it had been in those controlled by religious orders, it had no intelligent nursing staff to assist it, and the patients were regarded as so much material for experimentation. Their comfort was of little account. The doctors continued to encourage a primitive dread of fresh air; bathing was not thought of, or was even tabooed, and weak teas, possets, and thin gruels formed the dietary. The subjection of women was almost absolute during those heavy centuries, the seventeenth and eighteenth. Protestantism was then even more narrowly intolerant toward them than the older clericalism had been. The witch-baiting and burning that went on gave a test of measurement that was not encouraging, and not until 1735 was the crime of witchcraft struck out of the English laws. The deprivation of education was deliber- ate and intentional and the closed avenues of self- support prevented women from making organized revolt. The hospital nurse of the laity was now at her lowest point, and in 1752 the directors of Eng- lish hospitals made an attempt to change the title "Sister" to "Nurse," and that of "Nurse" to "Helper." Fortunately, however, the power of public sentiment made this attempt useless. In
