Introductory outline -- Care of the sick in the ancient world -- influence of christianity on the care of the sick -- Aristocratic and military influences in nursing -- Democratic and secular tendencies in nursing -- The dark period and the dawn of modern times -- Florence Nightingale and the beginnings of modern nursing in England -- Nursing in America, from the sixteenth to the twentieth century -- How modern nursing came to other countries -- The movement of self-organization -- The widening field of nursing service -- Nursing of the future and what it builds on -- Appendices -- List of reference books for teachers and students of nursing history -- Historical outlines -- International council of nursing -- The oath of Hippocrates with two modern adaptations sometimes used in nursing schools -- Glossary, key to symbols.