102 A Short History of Nursing century stirred a number of humane men to devote their powers, as St. Vincent de Paul had done, to ameliorating the miserable lives of the John Howard unfortunate. Promment among these and other the English philanthropist John humanita- > , . riansofthe Howard (1727-1789) who mvestigated eighteenth prisons all over England and in conti- century nental countries. Dungeon horrors which no one but he had ever seen, excepting the wretched prisoners and jailers, were recorded and reported by him in writings which made a profound impression and brought about certain improve- ments. Incidentally, as he came to them, Howard visited hospitals, and he made a thorough examina- tion of lazarettos in Europe. In his book Hospitals and Lazarettos he has given many illuminating criticisms which picture the nursing conditions very clearly. They were usually deplorable. The only commendations he had to give were for the Sisters of Charity and the Beguines. The conditions of the indigent insane were perhaps even worse than those of prisoners. The details of the cruel tortures to which they were often subjected under the ignorant supposition that terror, cold, and shock helped to subdue them, are indeed too painful to recite, yet everyone should read, in reliable sources, the dreadful facts
