pital." This dedication
is to be found at the beginning of the statutes of the hospital as
they were formulated in 1305.

The hospital did excellent service, and most of the original building
has remained down to our own day. It has seen many times of trial for
the citizens of Siena, and has proved its usefulness. Twice during the
fourteenth century it saw the coming of the Black Death, and its wards
and corridors and every room were filled with the dead and the dying.
During the fourteenth century St. Catherine of Siena spent much of her
time in the hospital, and it was her work here that gave her the
glorious prestige that came so unlooked for. The special confraternity
with which she was associated met in one of the smaller rooms of the
hospital. Attached to the hospital there was a special house for
lepers, and this was one of the favorite places for St. Catherine's
visitations. It is not surprising to find that she was, at the
beginning at least, very much opposed by her family in her choice of
such an occupation as this personal devotion to the poor and the sick.
In reading the story, one is reminded of the opposition that is
sometimes evoked at the present time when young women feel the
necessity for some occupation other than so-called social duties, and
take to slum visiting, or the care of the cancer poor, or some other
form of practical aid for the needy, apart from the giving of money,
or of doing a little sewing in a Lenten class, supposed to be the
limit of their charitable work in their special social circle.

[Illustration: HOSPITAL, MEXICO (FOUNDED BEFORE 1524) This hospital
was founded by Cortez prior to 1524 "in recognition of the graces and
mercies that God had bestowed upon him by the discovery and conquest
of New Spain and as an exoneration or satisfaction for any forgotten
fault or load which might weigh on his conscience and for which he
could not make special or particular atonement." After his death the
endowment was administered by a superintendent and has continued to be
under private management. It now belongs to the Dukes of Terranova y
Montaleone, Cortez' Italian descendants, who nominate and maintain an
agent to supervise the hospital (_A History of Nursing, Nutting and
Dock_).]

It is of curious interest, though not surprising, to find that in the
midst of the organization of new hospitals and reorganization of old
hospital foundations in the thirteenth century, attempts were made