2O            HOSPITAL  PREPARATIONS.
of thirty doctors and about two hundred nurses, Baron Hashimoto, the well-known and skilful head surgeon, attending three times a-week, and being always present on Wednesdays at operations. Nurses are admitted between the ages of eighteen and thirty, at a commencing salary of 8 to io yen per month. They have to remain three years, beginning as students and passing out as graduates, after which they may, if they wish, return to their homes and take private cases. But for fifteen years they can be called upon for special service in time of war (even married women not being exempt), when they receive the following salaries :—
Per month.
Head nurses,            28 to 30 yen.1
1st class graduates,   20 yen. 2nd class graduates, 18 yen.
1 A yen is equivalent to 2s.