224 A Short History of Nursing settled countries such organizations as the Queen's Nurses have carried skilled nursing care into the Rural most distant villages and hamlets, but nursing ^j^g newer and more sparsely set- tled countries, there are often large districts en- tirely unsupplied with nursing care. In New York State Ellen M. Wood's success- ful rural nursing foundation (1896), and, later, Lydia Holman's pioneer work among the moun- tain whites of North Carolina, first aroused widespread interest in the rural nursing problem. Other nurses have responded to the appeal of the country, and have carried on nursing work in con- nection with home mission organizations or as " free-lance " workers, on the prairies of the West, in lumber and mining camps, on lonely Indian reservations, and the fishing villages of the coast. A systematic effort to extend rural nursing was undertaken about 191 2 under the auspices of the American Red Cross. It includes within its sphere all special branches, — bedside nursing, school nurs- ing, infant welfare, assistance in dental clinics, work with tuberculosis and other infectious dis- eases, and extension teaching in connection with farmers' institutes, Chautauquas, and civic groups. Rural nursing is also being organized under State and County Boards of Health. The movement
