Florence NishtinEale 
 
 As Seen in Her Portraits 
 
 Price $1.25 
 
 MAUDE E, SEYMOUR ABBOTT, B.A., M.D. 
 
 ■'■■:':\\\:kM>- McGiLL University 
 ^^' ■Vv-;'--v.-;^> --■,■-■>;:■ MoN
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES 
 
 GIFT OF 
 
 DR. AND MRS. ELMER BELT
 
 Florence Nightingale 
 
 As Seen in Her Portraits 
 
 With a sketch of her life, and an account of her 
 relation to the origin of the Red Cross Society 
 
 BY 
 
 MAUDE E. SEYMOUR ABBOTT 
 McGiLL University 
 
 MOxNTREAL 
 
 Fifteen Illustrations 
 
 BOSTON, U. S. J. 
 
 'lieprinted from the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal 
 
 September 14th, 2 1st and 28th, igi6
 
 
 Plate VII. Florence 'Nightingale at Scutari.
 
 Plate VII. Florence Nightingale at Scutari. 
 From an Albion print of a drawing by Wandesforde, engraved by W. Wellstood. 
 
 (.See page 29.)
 
 rO THOSE NOBLE WOMEN ivho have 
 followed in the footsteps of 3Iiss Nightin- 
 gale, and have thereby raised the profession of 
 Nursing to the high place it now occupies, and 
 who maintain it therein above the dust of com- 
 mercialism, — Agnes Jones of the Workhouse 
 Infirmary of Liverpool, Mrs. Bedford Fenwick 
 of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London, Edith 
 Cavell of Belgium, Isabel Hampton Robb and 
 Adelaide Nutting of the Johns Hopkins Hos- 
 pital, Baltimore, Nora G. E. Livingstone of the 
 Montreal General Hospital, Mabel F. Hersey of 
 the Royal Victoria Hospital, Montreal, and 
 many others, — this little manuscript is affec- 
 tionately and reverently dedicated.
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 Introductory 
 
 PAGE 
 
 3 
 
 The Portraits ^ 
 
 I The Childhood of Florence Nightingale . . » 
 1820 - 1835. 
 
 Plates I. II. 
 
 II Girlhood and Early Womanhood IT 
 
 1835 -1853. 
 
 Plates III, IV, V, VI. 
 
 Ill The Period of the Crimean War 29 
 
 October, 1854 - August, 1856. 
 Plate VII. 
 
 The Nightingale's Return 37 
 
 IV The Period Immediately Following the 
 
 Crimean War 41 
 
 1856 - 1861. 
 
 Plates VIII, IX, X, XL 
 
 V Florence Nightingale in Later Life 57 
 
 1861 - 1910. 
 
 Plates XIL XIII, XIV, XV. 
 
 Bibliography 
 
 Miss Nightingale's Writings 71 
 
 Writings about Miss Nightingale 75
 
 FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE* 
 
 AS SEEN IN HER PORTRAITS 
 
 By Maude E. Seymouk Abbott, B.A., M.D. 
 McGill University, Montreal. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 It is nearly three quarters of a century since 
 the name of Florence Nightingale first thrilled 
 through Europe, plunged in the horrors of the 
 terrible Crimean War. The details of her great 
 and beneficent achievement have been forgot- 
 ten by many, and in their full extent, indeed, 
 have only been known by very few. Yet her 
 name remains as a household word among us, 
 breathing always the charm diffused by a life 
 consecrated to high ideals, and symbolizing to 
 us the power to move mountains of the passion- 
 ate womanly sympathy, discerning judgment, 
 and magnificent organizing genius, which to- 
 gether made her at once the Crimean heroine 
 and the great reformer of military hygiene of 
 the Victorian Age. Today we are again plunged 
 into a war which has become even more terrible 
 than any in the past, in consequence of the re- 
 finements of so-called civilization as applied to 
 methods of modern warfare. But we have to 
 thank the stream of military reform that set in 
 after the Crimean crisis, so largely initiated and 
 directed by the influence of Miss Nightingale, 
 that the care of the soldiers — wounded, sick, or 
 well — has been placed at the present day on a 
 very high plane of efficiency. 
 
 In view of the immensity of detail in such a 
 life as that of Florence Nightingale, a complete 
 account is impossible here. The most that can 
 be attempted is a brief outline of those events 
 
 * Adapted from an Address on "The Work of Florence Nightingale 
 and Medical Units in Active Service Today,"' delivered before the 
 Harvard Historical Club. December 7, 1915.
 
 that led up to, and followed the great Crimean 
 climax, which revealed her to the admiration 
 and affection of a grateful humanity. For fur- 
 ther detail, those who are interested should con- 
 sult the splendid Life of Florence Nightingale, 
 by Sir Edward Cook, issued in two volumes, in 
 1913, by MacMillan and Company, London. 
 The appearance of this book, from which the 
 materials for this little sketch are drawn, has 
 been an event in biographical literature. Based 
 upon a thorough study of a mass of written rec- 
 ords, including Miss Nightingale 's own diaries 
 and voluminous correspondence and many 
 other papers, official and otherwise, not pre- 
 viously laid open to the public, it for the first 
 time presents her story fully and fairly to the 
 world, without sentimental exaggeration, but 
 with the force of actual recorded facts. The 
 story of the ''Crimean Muddle," as the situa- 
 tion she was called upon to cope with in the 
 East was picturesquely called, is told with fair- 
 ness and discrimination, and the history of her 
 activities, both then and in her subsequent life, 
 is accurately detailed. As a result, we find the 
 Florence Nightingale of our traditional knowl- 
 edge replaced by a somewhat different, but a 
 more human, and, we venture to think, a much 
 greater character, — one in whom the self-devo- 
 tion and passionate tenderness of heart towards 
 the distressed, for which she has always been im- 
 mortalized, were combined with an unswerving 
 singleness of aim, a wide clarity of judgment, 
 and immense powers of organization and execu- 
 tion that initiated and carried out far-reaching 
 reforms. Her story, as here learned, is not 
 alone that hackneyed theme, familiar to us all, 
 of a gifted and gentle lady, who, moved with 
 patriotic pity, braved the dangers of the seat of 
 war for the sake of helping the distressed sol- 
 diers of a beloved Queen, and who became there- 
 after the popular heroine of the Victorian Age. 
 The secret of her immense popularity and of
 
 the lasting greatness of her name has had a 
 more logical foundation and a deeper root than 
 could have been possible from the fruits of any- 
 single action. For in this case, as so often, vox 
 populi vox Dei est. 
 
 From this new biography we learn that her 
 life before that Crimean climax was one long 
 struggling preparation and battling through of 
 the many barriers raised alike by social preju- 
 dice and domestic affections towards the voca- 
 tion that she felt was hers, though she knew not 
 how or when it might come to her, but which, 
 when it came, found her ready, with prejudices 
 defeated, expert training secured, spiritually 
 and mentally waiting for one of the great med- 
 ical and military crises of the nineteenth cen- 
 tury, that was to be hers to control and to' 
 subdue. Nor, after the crisis in the East was 
 over, did she subside into the gentle inaction of 
 an invalid chamber, as has been popularly 
 thought, but from that chamber, battling with 
 the physical illness that remained after her ex- 
 ertions in the Crimea, and that threatened her 
 life many times, she proceeded unrestingly to 
 the solution of those many pressing problems 
 by which medical science was revolutionized by 
 her in various directions. 
 
 Had it not been for the absolutely Herculean 
 labors of Florence Nightingale, invalided in 
 body, but of indomitable will, after her return 
 from the Crimea, the terrible lessons of the war 
 would have remained unlearned by the British 
 nation, and the great reforms in the hygiene 
 of the British army, sanitary science both in the 
 East and "West, hospital construction, and last 
 but not least, in the profession of the gentle art 
 of nursing, — reforms which she instituted, or- 
 ganized, and actually dictated to Court and 
 Ministers alike, — would not have been carried 
 out, and the many wrongs she righted would 
 have remained for the sufferings of a later gen- 
 eration to retrieve. In the face of her pro-
 
 longed illness, the heroism that struggled and 
 won success for those reforms was on a higher 
 plane than that by which she won the nation's 
 praise at Scutari and Balaklava. 
 
 It is this new and immensely heroic present- 
 ment of her genius, so evident now that the true 
 story of her life is unveiled to us, that I would 
 endeavor to reflect here. In the words of a 
 recent essayist, the Crimean episode, truly seen, 
 is only an incident in her career. Her title to 
 rank among the great figures of history would 
 have been as unchallengeable without that 
 tremendous chapter. For her work was not 
 passing, but permanent; not incidental, but 
 fundamental. 
 
 THE PORTRAITS. 
 
 The series of portraits, which form an illus- 
 trative basis for this article, have been drawn 
 from various sources, which are acknowledged 
 below each. The writer's thanks are also due 
 to the late Mr. J. B. Learmont, who made a 
 collection of Nightingale memorabilia, and pre- 
 sented several of the fine engravings reproduced 
 here, to various institutions in Montreal; to 
 Miss Helen Desbrisay of the Canadian Nurses' 
 Association for much valuable information ; and 
 especially to Dr. Harvey Gushing, to whose in- 
 terest and through whose kind cooperation the 
 publication of this article in its present form 
 is due. 
 
 In the following paragraphs an attempt is 
 made to group, under the periods in which these 
 various portraits fall, a short biographical out- 
 line of the main facts, or rather factors, in the 
 development of Miss Nightingale's character 
 and work, and of their far-reaching results.
 
 I 
 
 THE CHILDHOOD OF 
 FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE 
 
 1820-1835 
 
 Plates I and II
 
 The Childhood of Florence Nightingale 
 
 Florence Nightingale was born in Florence, 
 Italy, in the year 1820, during a winter's so- 
 journ of her parents there. One of two only 
 daughters of wealthy parents, she was brought 
 up in all the luxurious refinement of the best 
 type of English home, in the midst of a large 
 and affectionate family connection, in an en- 
 vironment enriched by all the intellectual ad- 
 vantages and the happiness that such circum- 
 stances could bring. Born, as it may be said, a 
 democrat, she quickly learned to discount the 
 importance of these things in themselves, and 
 yet her life was colored throughout by these 
 early relations, which gave her, in the wide ex- 
 perience of suffering and distress that came to 
 her in later years, a sense of proportionate 
 values, and a capacity of taking herself and 
 others for granted, that was one of the ele- 
 ments in her power, and that could probably 
 have come to her in no other way. The rich 
 English scenery, too, in which she lived through- 
 out her childhood and girlhood days, and in 
 which she revelled consciously, even as a little 
 child, must have sunk deep into her observant 
 and sensitive nature, and been to the great spir- 
 itual powers lying dormant there, as springs of 
 water in a thirsty land. For there are few 
 more beautiful homes and surroundings in Eng- 
 land than the estates of Lea Hurst in Derby- 
 shire, and Embley in Surrey, on which, with his 
 family, Mr. Nightingale passed alternately the 
 winter and summer months of every year. 
 
 The two sisters were the objects of much ten- 
 der personal care from their parents. Mrs. 
 Nightingale was a woman who accepted and ad- 
 hered strictly to the religious and social con- 
 ventions of her day, but, within their limits, 
 9
 
 I'LAiE 1. Mrs. ^KjHTInuale and Her Daughters, 1828. 
 
 From a portrait in the possession of Mrs. CuiiHffe, and reproduced in Sir Edward Cook's 
 Life of Florence Nightingale. 
 
 10
 
 she was prompt and generous in the exercise of 
 a philanthropy that devolved as a duty upon 
 an Englishwoman of her means and position. 
 Both her daughters were early permitted to 
 share in their mother's solicitude for the poor of 
 their father's estate, and to accompany her on 
 errands of help among them. Such activities 
 appealed especially to Florence, who quickly re- 
 vealed her innate sympathy for the sick, phil- 
 anthropic bent, and deeply religious nature. The 
 contrast between the lot of rich and poor struck 
 her then, as it continued to do with increasing 
 force throughout life, as an incongruity, and 
 her childish diaries and letters contain naive 
 comparisons and comments. She was a healthy 
 child, fond of a frolic, and not free from un- 
 regenerate impulses towards unsympathetic 
 governesses, yet, on the whole, serious-minded^ 
 and a little self-absorbed, with a tendency to 
 introspection that sometimes verged upon the 
 morbid, and an inclination to belittle herself 
 and her powers, that arose partly out of a con- 
 scientious knowledge of her own shortcomings, 
 and partly from a natural shyness, amounting^ 
 almost to self-consciousness. 
 
 Her love for animals was very strong, and she 
 had a succession of pets, which she cherished, 
 sick or well. The story of the injured collie- 
 dog, which had been regretfully condemned to be 
 hanged by his master, because of a hopelessly 
 broken paw, and which she tended under the 
 guidance of the vicar, all one long summer day, 
 until the prospect of healing was assured and 
 the delighted shepherd acknowledged his right 
 to live, is almost too hackneyed to repeat. But 
 it is a true story, and is of interest, because it is^ 
 intently characteristic of a little girl who, 
 many years later, refused to give up the lives 
 of the five Crimean soldiers who were pro- 
 nounced "too far gone to be operated on." 
 "Will you give me these men to do as I like 
 with ? ' ' she asked of the surgeons as they 
 
 11
 
 Plate II. 1"i,<ii;k.\i i. >i'.HTi.N(,Ai.E and the Injihed Coli.ie Dog. 
 
 From an engraving in the possession of Miss White, Assistant Superintendent of the Royal Victoria 
 
 Hospital, Montreal. 
 
 12
 
 turned away. And, the necessary consent ob- 
 tained, she sat all night through beside them, 
 tending their wounds and supporting them with 
 food and stimulant, with such success, that 
 when morning came, the surgeons, with sur- 
 prised relief, were able to carry out what 
 would earlier have been a useless task. One 
 wonders if the adoring affection in the eyes of 
 the gentle collie equalled the gratitude in the 
 hearts of those poor wounded men! 
 
 Like many of his circle, for he belonged to 
 that interesting Unitarian group among whom 
 the Martineaus were so prominent, Mr. Night- 
 ingale held views on the higher education of 
 women that were far in advance of his time. 
 He personally supervised the education of his 
 daughters, himself teaching them, as they grew 
 older, modern languages and classics, European 
 and Constitutional History, and even higher 
 mathematics. They wrote essays and analyzed 
 philosophical treatises, pursuing much the 
 same course of study, under his tutorship, as 
 would be followed now for a university degree. 
 Florence was an ardent and laborious student, 
 arising often at four in the morning to carry 
 out her preparations, and, as Sir Edward Cook 
 remarks, to her father's guidance in these ways 
 she was undoubtedly indebted for the mental 
 grasp and power of intellectual concentration 
 that distinguished her work in later life. 
 
 Conscientious to a degree, imbued with a feel- 
 ing of responsibility and a religious sense of 
 self -dedication that developed in her very early 
 years, absorbed in a round of studies, duties, 
 and pleasures provided by her wise yet indul- 
 gent parents, Florence Nightingale grew from 
 an engaging child into the "girl of sixteen of 
 great promise" that a contemporary letter de- 
 scribes. 
 
 13
 
 II 
 
 GIRLHOOD AND EARLY 
 WOMANHOOD 
 
 1835-1853 
 
 Plates III, IV, V, VI
 
 Girlhood and Early Womanhood 
 
 In 1837, when his younger daughter was 
 seventeen, Mr. Nightingale took his family to 
 the Continent, and eighteen delightful months 
 were spent in leisurely travel through France, 
 Italy and Switzerland. Everywhere the best 
 social, artistic, musical, literary and political 
 circles were open to them, and they entered 
 heartily into the complex foreign life about 
 them. The tour ended with a winter in Pans, 
 where, in the brilliant salons of their friends, 
 the two charming girls discovered themselves 
 both attractive and attracted. Freed from the 
 shyness that had troubled her, Florence found 
 she had social gifts of a high order, and con- 
 fesses in her diary that the last temptation she 
 had to overcome, 'before she was free to inter- 
 pret that insistent inner call, was a "desire to 
 shine in society." 
 
 All this was pleasant enough, and there was 
 no reason to suppose at this time that Florence 
 Nightingale would do otherwise than fulfil the 
 expectations of her parents, and be content to 
 live out the life of a happy English girl, and 
 later, perhaps, become the wife of some good 
 and worthy man. It was only after their return 
 to England, and a short London season, when 
 they were settled again in the midst of the busy 
 hospitality of their country home, that a sense 
 of the inadequacy of the social pleasures and 
 domestic joys that surrounded her came upon 
 her. It was to increase with the years, until, 
 long before she attained her freedom, she strug- 
 gled against the restrictions that bound her, 
 with all the restlessness of a caged bird. The 
 very happiness of the home that sheltered her, 
 and the warmth of its affections, were gilded 
 17
 
 Plate III. Florence Nightingale as a Girl. 
 
 From a drawing' by Sir Hilary Boiiham Carter, and reproduced 
 in Sir Edward Cook's Life of Florence Nightingale. 
 
 bars against which she almost broke her heart. 
 To understand the nature and the greatness of 
 this part of Miss Nightingale 's achievement, that 
 consisted in surmounting the obstacles that lay 
 in the way of her preparation, one must project 
 oneself in imagination into the age in which 
 she lived, seventy years ago, when it was an 
 unheard-of thing for a beautiful and accom- 
 plished girl to do an.ything outside of the pre- 
 cincts of her home. Her mother and sister, af- 
 fectionate as they were, did not even under- 
 stand her impulse, and when at last it formu- 
 lated itself into a distinct sense of a vocation 
 18
 
 lo care for the sick, as it did when she wa^ 
 twenty-five, they felt towards it a real dis- 
 favor. Nor can one hlame them, remembering 
 the low standards of hospital life of those days 
 ^nd the degraded type of nurse. She was an 
 affectionate and dutiful daughter, and yielded 
 to her parents' wishes for many years, doing 
 her best to be happy and to make others happy, 
 in what was to her a ceaseless round of trivial- 
 ities, and often suffering intensely from the 
 sense of frustration of her higher self. For, in 
 addition to the fact that there were great 
 powers of organization and execution ferment- 
 ing in her mind, which at that time had no 
 outlet, and that she was swayed by a really 
 passionate altruism, Florence Nightingale was 
 distinctly conscious, as much so as any other 
 saint in history, of a "call to be a saviour," as 
 she expresses it more than once in her diaries. 
 In an autobiographical fragment, written in 
 1867, she mentions February 7th, 1837, at 
 Embley, as the day when "God called me to 
 His service," and several times this period is 
 referred to as one of the chief crises of her 
 inner life. It was the sense of defection to this 
 inner call during these years of abeyance, under 
 which she suffered most. Her father was a Uni- 
 tarian, but she and her mother and sister fol- 
 lowed the usages of the Church of England. 
 Later in life her theological opinions became 
 very broad, and she may be said to have con- 
 formed to no dogma except the existence of a 
 personal God, but she maintained throughout 
 her life this deeply religious attitude of mind, 
 and this fact must be recognized in any true 
 estimate of her life and work. In no other way 
 is to be explained her humility of spirit, which 
 may be likened to that of St. Francis of Assisi, 
 and her dislike of public acknowledgment, 
 which sprang not only from natural modesty, 
 but from an inner principle. 
 
 19
 
 Plate IV. Miss Nightingale (about 1845). 
 
 From an engraving in the possession of Miss Livingstone, 
 Lady Superintendent of the Montreal General Hospital, 
 Montreal, from a drawing by H. M. B. C, published Nov. 
 28th, 1854, by P. and D. Colnaghi, London. 
 
 It was with an affectionate hope of distract- 
 ing her from her tiresome purpose, and with an 
 entire lack of sympathy in her feeling, that her 
 mother and sister planned and arranged several 
 continental trips for her with congenial friends. 
 The winter of 1847 was spent in Rome, with 
 her friends the Braeebridges, who afterwards. 
 20
 
 served with her in the Crimea. It was an 
 eventful year for the future of her desire in 
 more than one respect. In Rome she met the 
 Sydney Herberts, and began that friendship 
 with Lord Herbert, that was so fruitful in great 
 results in the Crimea and after. And she be- 
 came intimate with and studied the methods of 
 an Italian nursing sisterhood. Moreover, it waa 
 a time of great happiness in other ways, for her 
 appreciation of the beautiful was intense. The 
 Sistine Chapel came to her as a revelation, and 
 remained as one until the end of her life. Her 
 description of it is exquisite. 
 
 The winter of 1849-1850 she again spent trav- 
 elling, this time in Egypt and Greece. It was 
 at Athens that she picked up a baby owl that 
 had fallen among the ruins of the Parthenon. 
 She carried it in her pocket, and brought it 
 home to Embley, where it lived for years. A 
 small tragedy of her departure for the Crimea, 
 was that the family, in leaving town to see her 
 off, forgot to feed the owl, which was dead oii 
 their return. The portrait by Lady Verney 
 (Plate V) shows the owl on the pedestal beside 
 her, and it is carved, too, on the foot of the 
 Derby memorial statue. 
 
 It was on her way back to England from 
 Greece, on July 31, 1850, that she first visited 
 the Deaconesses Institute at Kaiserwerth on the 
 Rhine. This had been the goal of her desires 
 for the last six years, and repeatedly her hopes 
 to see it had met with disappointment. It was a 
 Protestant Sisterhood, organized by Pastor 
 Fliedner and his wife, for the care of the sick 
 poor, and discharged prisoners, and for the 
 education of orphans, along lines which ap- 
 pealed intensely to her. The deaconesses took 
 no vows, but came voluntarily, because they felt 
 a vocation. She spent a fortnight in the insti- 
 tution then, and returned the following summer 
 (1851), the free consent of her parents having 
 
 21
 
 Plate V. Miss Nightingale (about 1849). 
 
 From an engraving in the possession of the Victorian 
 Order of Nurses, Montreal, from a drawing by her sister, 
 Lady Verney, published June, 1855, by Colnaghi. 
 
 at last been obtained, for three months' train- 
 ing. In the hard work, long hours, and ascetic 
 simplicity of the life, as well as in the high- 
 minded admonitions of the pastor, she took the 
 deepest delight, and pronounced herself at last 
 
 22
 
 "intensely happy." It was a turning-point in 
 her career, for she came to feel there that her 
 life was at last her own, and the time for in- 
 decision and yielding was past. There were still 
 difficulties and doubts at home, but she was no 
 longer restless, but assured. February of 1853 
 saw her established at the Soeurs de la Provi- 
 dence in Paris for another short period of 
 study, and in July of that year she took her first 
 post, as superintendent of the "Sick Gov- 
 ernesses' Home'" on Harley Street. Here she 
 remained, winning the confidence of a difficult 
 committee, and a still more difficult class of 
 patients, until a short time after the outbreak 
 of the Crimean War. 
 
 In this little sketch of Florence Nightingale, 
 during her time of aspiration and probation, 
 there are many aspects that have not been 
 touched upon at all. Her character was indeed 
 fair and pure, as these early portraits well 
 show, but there were shadows as well as lights 
 within it. The acquirement, for instance, of the 
 remarkable habits of precision, regularity and 
 method that characterized her later years was 
 attained only through difficult stumbling. "Let 
 those," says Sir Edward Cook, "who reproach 
 themselves for a desultoriness, seemingly incur- 
 able, take heart again from the example of Flor- 
 ence Nightingale ! No self-reproach recurs more 
 often in her private outpourings at this time, 
 than that of irregularity and even sloth. She 
 found it difficult to rise early in the morning; 
 she prayed and wrestled to be delivered from 
 desultory thoughts, from idle dreaming, from 
 scrappiness in unselfish work. She wrestled, 
 and she won." To her again the palm of vic- 
 tory! 
 
 Again, the unfulfilled longing that so long 
 possessed her for practical expression of her 
 powers and mission, and her habits of self- 
 examination and of religous thought, did not 
 prevent her from sharing in a very full way the 
 23
 
 Plate VI. Florence Nightingale. 
 From a painting in the National Portrait Gallery, by 
 Augustus Egg, R. A., and reproduced in the Life of Flor- 
 ence Nightingale by Annie Matheson. 
 
 life that went on about her. Florence Nightin- 
 gale was no sad-eyed ascetic. We hear of her 
 managing private theatricals, mothering young 
 cousins, nursing maiden aunts, absorbed in 
 housekeeping responsibilities, sympathizing 
 with the love affairs of friends, and a host of 
 other things. No happiness could exceed that 
 of that winter in Rome. 
 24
 
 Nor did she escape that experience that comes 
 to almost every man and woman in life. She 
 was sought in marriage, long and persistently, 
 by one with whom her own heart was engaged. 
 With a clear-sightedness, born of her consecra- 
 tion to an ideal stronger and higher than her- 
 self, she put this form of earthly happiness be- 
 hind her, feeling that she could not do her duty 
 to him and to her work. Not from any belittle- 
 ment of the married state, nor from any lack 
 of knowledge of what the higher kind of mar- 
 riage might mean to them both did she act, but 
 in the same spirit that prompted Saint Theresa 
 or Santa Filomena. One of the most touching 
 of her good-bye letters before she left for the 
 Crimea was from this friend. "You undertake 
 this," he wrote, "when you cannot undertake 
 me!" 
 
 25
 
 Ill 
 
 THE PERIOD OF THE CRIMEAN WAR 
 
 October, 1854, to August, 1856 
 
 Plate VII
 
 The Period of the Crimean War 
 
 This portrait,* one of the best known of the 
 earlier pictures of Miss Nightingale, shows her, 
 in garb and visage of the pre-Crimean days, 
 seated on what is evidently a portico at Scu- 
 tari, overlooking the Straits towards Constanti- 
 nople. "I have not been out of the Hospital 
 yet," she wrote, ten days after her arrival, "but 
 the most beautiful view in all the world lies, I 
 believe, outside my door." 
 
 As will be remembered, the Crimean War was 
 waged between Russia and Turkey, with Great 
 Britain and France ranged as allies on the lat- 
 ter side. The battlefield was the Crimean 
 peninsula on the northeastern border of the 
 Black Sea, and the bloodshed was so great as to 
 almost parallel the horrors of today. The Brit- 
 ish public accepted with resignation the news 
 of the sacrifices in the field. But it met in a 
 different spirit the alarming reports that fol- 
 lowed immediately upon the news of the Battle 
 of Alma, fought on September 20, 1854, of the 
 ravages which neglect and disease were making 
 among the multitude of the wounded, under the 
 complete lack of sanitation that prevailed 
 among the British troops. Not only were the 
 hospital supplies, that had been freely sent put, 
 unavailable for use through misunderstandings 
 with the Turkish customs and other stu- 
 pidities, so that the men were unclothed and 
 unfed, and all sanitary measures neglected, but 
 there was an entire lack of proper attendance 
 for the sick, the skilled female nurses employed 
 by their French allies providing an invidious 
 comparison. A letter to the Times from its cor- 
 respondent, William Howard Russell, exposing 
 
 * See frontisjiieee. 
 
 29
 
 these defects in no measured terms, and calling 
 upon England for redress, evoked a storm of in- 
 dignation that swept the country. Miss Night- 
 ingale's training and personality were well 
 known to a large circle of influential friends, 
 and, moreover, her excellent administration of 
 the "Governesses' Home" had brought her into 
 touch with another side of the philanthropic 
 public. The letter to the Times appeared on 
 October 12. On October 14, under the action 
 of a small committee, headed by Lady Maria 
 Forester, she wrote to her friend Lord Sydney 
 Herbert, who was then Minister at War, asking 
 for authority to go out at her own expense at 
 the head of a small band of five nurses. It is 
 one of the coincidences of history tha't her letter 
 to Lord Herbert crossed one from him to her, 
 asking her, in the name of the British "War 
 Office, to undertake this task, and urging her 
 acceptance of it on the ground that she was the 
 only person in England who could make it a 
 success, and promising her undivided authority 
 over the "Female military nursing establish- 
 ments in the East" and unlimited supplies. 
 On October 21, five days after the matter was 
 formally settled, she sailed for the East at the 
 head of thirty-eight nurses, of whom twenty- 
 four belonged to the Roman Catholic and Angli- 
 can sisterhoods and the remainder were un- 
 trained. During these five days of selection of 
 candidates and all the mass of detail involved 
 in the organization of such an expedition, as 
 also in all the exigencies of the uncomfortable 
 voyage out, the most noteworthy thing about 
 Miss Nightingale was her absolute calm, and 
 her quiet control of the situation. 
 
 The groups of military hospitals in the East 
 bore to each other something of the relationship 
 that the field and base hospitals of our forces do 
 now. On the Crimean peninsula, in the imme- 
 diate neighborhood of the conflict and amongst 
 the adjacent hills, there were, in addition to the 
 30
 
 regimental dressing-stations, four large general 
 hospitals, some established in huts, others in 
 buildings. On the opposite, that is, the south- 
 western, side of the Black Sea, across the Bos- 
 phorus from Constantinople and overlooking 
 the Sea of Marmora, were the three great Brit- 
 ish military hospitals of Scutari, two of which, 
 the General and Barrack Hospitals, were under 
 the jurisdiction of Miss Nightingale, as also 
 were all the hospitals in the Crimea, and for a 
 time those at Koulali, four miles distant from 
 Scutari. It was to the great Barrack Hospital 
 of Scutari that she came on arrival, and there 
 she had her headquarters. The abuses com- 
 plained of in the Times were especially evident 
 here because of the great overcrowding, the 
 more unhealthy situation, the prevalence of 
 cholera and other infections, and the fact that 
 the means of transport across the Black Sea 
 was very poor, so that the wounded arrived at 
 Scutari in the last stages of exhaustion, in a 
 condition when the lack of suitable food and 
 the general inefficiency worked greater havoc. 
 
 The party arrived at Scutari on November 4, 
 1854. The Battle of Balaklava had been fought 
 on October 25, and that of Inkerman on the 
 day before their arrival, and the wounded were 
 pouring in. The hospital was a huge place, 
 capable of accommodating over 2000 patients 
 (the maximum at one time was 2434, on De- 
 cember 23, 1855), and containing, in its over- 
 crowded state, over four miles of beds, eighteen 
 inches apart. In a letter written on November 
 14, Miss Nightingale writes that there were 1715 
 sick and wounded (among whom were 120 chol- 
 era patients), in this hospital, and 650 in the 
 other building, called the General Hospital, of 
 which they also had charge, "when a message 
 came to prepare for 510 wounded arriving in 
 half an hour from the dreadful atfair at Bala- 
 klava. Between one and nine o'clock we had the 
 mattresses stuffed, sewn up, laid upon the floor, 
 31
 
 the men washed and put to bed, and their 
 wounds dressed." It was with such numbers 
 and with similar emergencies, under circum- 
 stances of extreme complexity, that Miss Night- 
 ingale had to cope, during that first six months. 
 
 The fact that there was gross maladministra- 
 tion in every department of these hospitals at 
 the time of her arrival, has been clearly estab- 
 lished by the Royal Commission appointed at 
 the time. The trouble was partly due to an or- 
 ganization without central authority, partly to 
 gross ignorance of ordinary hygiene, partly to 
 the want of the woman's touch, and in part 
 doubtless to the real lack of capacity of certain 
 officials to deal with a novel situation. Miss 
 Nightingale brought all her powers of tact, 
 courage, judgment and resolution to meet the 
 exigencies of the case. The large public funds 
 that had been placed at her disposal by the 
 Times and other sources, as well as her own 
 private income, enabled her to tide over a situa- 
 tion otherwise hopeless; but the problem re- 
 mained to meet these urgent necessities within 
 the limitations set by military rigidity and pro- 
 fessional jealousy, for she realized from the out- 
 set that strict discipline must be observed by 
 herself, and a proper subordination to the med- 
 ical officers in charge. Much has been said of 
 her "irregular" methods of cutting tlie Gordian 
 knots of her dilemmas by supplies from her own 
 reserves or by deliberate and unauthorized in- 
 vasion of the purveyor's stores. But she never 
 neglected to support such action by a medical 
 requisition, and investigation shows that she 
 never set authority causelessly aside. Rather 
 she had the insight of that perfect discipline, 
 which recognizes the point at which the break- 
 ing of the letter is the fulfilment of the spirit 
 of the law! 
 
 Many of the difficulties are detailed in her 
 letters to Lord Herbert, with suggestions for 
 their redress. Thus, on her arrival there was no 
 32
 
 provision for the cleaning of the hospital, "not 
 a basin, or towel, or piece of soap, or a broom, ' ' 
 and her first requisition was for 300 scrubbing 
 brushes! The patients' linen was not washed, 
 and the bedding was only rinsed through in 
 cold water, for the contract made by the pur- 
 veyor with this object broke down before the 
 convoys from Inkerman came in. Her first step 
 was the renting and equipping of a Turkish 
 house as a laundry, and the placing of the sol- 
 diers' wives at the washtubs. There was no 
 clothing in the purveyor's stores, while, by a 
 curious command, the soldiers had been re- 
 quired to leave their knapsacks before the 
 Alma, in order to "march light" towards Sebas- 
 topol. In consequence the wounded arrived 
 half naked and destitute of kit wherewith to 
 leave the hospital. "I am clothing the British 
 Army," she wrote. Again, on her arrival she 
 found the entire cooking done in thirteen huge 
 boilers, with no provision whatever for extra 
 diets or special delicacies between times, and, 
 by an extremity of red-tapeism, the rations 
 were served raw in small quantities for each pa- 
 tient. "This practice," writes Miss Nightin- 
 gale to Lord Herbert, "seems invented on pur- 
 pose to waste the time of as many orderlies as 
 possible, and it makes the patients' meals late, 
 because it is impossible to get the diets thus 
 drawn, cooked before three or four o'clock. The 
 scene of confusion, delay, and disappointment, 
 where all these raw diets are being weighed out 
 by twos, and threes, and fours, is impossible to 
 conceive, unless one has seen it, as I have, day 
 by day. Why should not the Commissariat send 
 at once the amount of meat, etc., required, to 
 the kitchens,without passing through this inter- 
 mediate stage of drawing by orderlies?" One 
 of the most important measures introduced by 
 her at the Barrack Hospital, was the opening, 
 within 10 days of her arrival, of two extra diet- 
 kitchens, and the placing of three supplemen- 
 33
 
 tary boilers for arrowroot on various stair- 
 cases. A few months later the great Soyer 
 joined her as a volunteer, and took over the 
 management of this invaluable part of the work. 
 
 And so with a thousand other details of man- 
 agement and equipment. She organized relief 
 measures for the women camp followers, pro- 
 vided reading rooms for convalescent soldiers, 
 engaged and superintended 200 builders in the 
 emergency repair of a large part of the hos- 
 pital, trained orderlies in sanitary measures, 
 and herself did the work many times of a sani- 
 tary engineer, everywhere applying the ex- 
 pert's touch. But all this would have been in- 
 effectual had she not had behind her own ac- 
 tion the intelligent and informed power of 
 those in authority at home. Her long days 
 were followed by nights of letter-writing, when 
 she indicated clearly to high sources what the 
 necessary reforms were, and just how they 
 should be carried out. Not only had she the 
 loyal support of Lord Herbert and his col- 
 leagues, but the Queen herself was behind the 
 prompt execution of her suggestions, and this 
 was one of the most important sources of what 
 was called by her enemies "The Nightingale 
 Power." Among other measures enacted at her 
 suggestion, it was due to the Executive Sanitary 
 Commission, appointed in the winter of 1855, 
 to act with plenary powers on the spot, that the 
 horrible sanitary conditions of the hospital, 
 which may be said to have overlain a great cess- 
 pool, were removed. The death rate fell, as the 
 result of the action of this Commission, with 
 remarkable rapidity. 
 
 But there was still another side of her ac- 
 tivity — and that the ceaseless keynote of the 
 whole, to which all her functions of adminis- 
 trator and reformer were, in a sense, secondary. 
 "A Ministering Angel Thou!" Her devoted 
 care of the patient, personal sympathy for the 
 sufferer, skillful tending of the exhausted, and 
 34
 
 faithfulness to the dying, — all those qualities 
 that went to make the Lady-in-Chief at once 
 the Queen of Nurses and the adored of the 
 wounded soldiery, shone day and night through 
 those crowded wards at Scutari like the beam 
 of her own lamp ! 
 
 In the spring of 1855 Miss Nightingale crossed 
 the Black Sea to the Hospitals of the Crimea 
 and remained there for some time. The phys- 
 ical strain upon her here was great, for the 
 several hospital buildings were distant from 
 each other, and she was obliged to go from one 
 to another, often in the depth of night, over 
 rough country. With her strength undermined 
 by tlie strain of the work at Scutari, she fell ill 
 of Crimean fever, and nearly died. It was 
 when the ncM^s of her recovery reached an 
 anxious England, that the popular feeling for 
 her, which had been growing stronger ever 
 since the day it was discovered that the "Mrs. 
 Nightingale" of the Nursing Expedition was a 
 young and beautiful woman, and which was 
 being constantly enhanced through coointless 
 grateful letters home from wounded and dying 
 soldiers, burst all bounds, and a wave of'ten- 
 derest enthusiasm swept England from shore 
 to shore. A public meeting was called in Lon- 
 don "to give expression to the general feeling 
 that the services of Miss Nightingale in the 
 East demand the grateful recognition of the 
 British people." The room was crowded to suf- 
 focation with the flower of England's men and 
 women, her own parents among them. The 
 speeches were beautiful, and were touching to 
 a degree in their perfect recognition of the 
 single-minded spirit in which her wonderful 
 work was done. Dearest of all to her heart — 
 perhaps the only part of it all for which she 
 really cared at all — was the joy that this public 
 recognition of her work brought to her parents 
 and to her sister. Lady Verney, long since rec- 
 onciled to her purpose, and now understanding 
 her at last. 35
 
 It was at this meeting that the Nightingale^ 
 Fund was inaugurated, "to enable her to estab- 
 lish and control an Institution for the training, 
 sustenance, and protection of nurses, paid and 
 unpaid." This fund was later applied by her 
 to establish a training school for nurses at St. 
 Thomas's Hospital. The flood of popular en- 
 thusiasm rolled on through the British Domin- 
 ions, and public meetings in support of her 
 fund were everywhere held. And the Queen 
 honored her with a beautiful jewel, especially 
 designed for her by the Prince Consort. 
 
 After recovery from her illness. Miss Night- 
 ingale was urged to return to England, but she- 
 insisted on remaining at her post, part of the 
 time at Scutari and part at the Crimea, until 
 after the termination of the war. It was on 
 August 4, 1856, four months after the treaty of 
 peace was signed, that she reached again her 
 native land. 
 
 Public excitement was intense at the thought 
 of her expected return, but, as Lord Ellesmere 
 had said, speaking on May 5 in the House of 
 Commons, "she is probably planning now how 
 to escape as best she may, on her return, the 
 demonstration of a nation's appreciation of the 
 deeds and motives of Florence Nightingale." 
 She arrived at Lea Hurst from Paris unrecog- 
 nized, under the name of Miss Smith, and 
 walked unaccompanied from the little station to- 
 the protection of her home. 
 
 Disappointed of a public demonstration, the- 
 Press overflowed with admiring tributes in 
 poetry and prose. With his usual timeliness,. 
 Mr. Punch published several excellent poems. 
 One of these, which appeared on August 23, 
 1856, mirrors so well the sympathetic under- 
 standing and the real affection that swayed the- 
 British public of her day, that it is in the truest 
 sense historic, and for that reason may be 
 quoted here. 
 
 36
 
 "The Nightingale's Return. 
 
 •'Most blessed things come silently, and silently 
 
 depart, 
 Noiseless steals springtime to the year, and comfort 
 
 to the heart. 
 And still and light, and gentle, like a dew, the rain 
 
 must be 
 To quicken seed in furrow and blossom upon tree. 
 
 "Nile has his foaming rapids, freshets from mountain 
 snows. 
 Yet, where his stream breeds fruitfuluess, serene and 
 
 calm he flows. 
 And, where he overbrims, to cheer his banks on 
 
 either side. 
 You scarce can mark, so gradual, the swelling of his 
 tide. 
 
 "The wings of angels make no stir as they ply their 
 work of love. 
 
 Yet by the balm they shed around, we know them 
 that they move. 
 
 God spake not in the thunder, nor the mighty rush- 
 ing blast. 
 
 His utterance was in the still small voice that came 
 at last. 
 
 "So she, our sweet Saint Florence, modest, and still, 
 and calm, 
 
 With no parade of martyr's cross, no pomp of mar- 
 tyr's crown, 
 
 To the place of plague and famine, foulness and 
 wounds and pain, 
 
 Went out upon her gracious toil, and now returns 
 again. 
 
 "No shouting crowds about her path, no multitude's 
 
 hot breath, 
 To fan, with winds of vanity, the doubtful fires of 
 faith. 
 Her path by hands official all unsmoothed. her aims 
 
 decried. 
 By the Levites. who, when need was, passed on the 
 other side. 
 
 "When titles, pensions, orders by random hand are 
 showered. 
 'Tis meet that, save with blessing, she still should 
 
 walk undowered. 
 What title like her own sweet name with the music 
 
 all its own? 
 What order like the halo by her good deeds round 
 her thrown? 
 
 87
 
 "Like her own bird, all voiceless when the daylight 
 
 songsters thrill. 
 Sweet singer in the darkness, when all songs else are 
 
 still. 
 She, in that night of darkness that turned other 
 
 hearts to stone. 
 Came, with soft step and gentle voice, yet wise and 
 
 firm of tone. 
 
 "Think of the prayers for her, that to praying hearts 
 
 came back 
 In rain of blessings, seeming still to spring upon her 
 
 track. 
 The comforts of her graciousness to those whose 
 
 road to death 
 Was dark and doubtful till she showed the light of 
 
 love and faith. 
 
 "Then leave her to the quiet she has chosen. She de- 
 mands 
 No greeting from our brazen throat, and vulgar clap- 
 ping hands. 
 Leave her to the still comfort the saints know that 
 
 have striven. 
 What are our earthly honours? Her honours are in 
 Heaven." 
 
 Punch, Aug. 23, 185G. 
 
 38
 
 IV 
 
 THE PERIOD IMMEDIATELY FOLLOW- 
 ING THE CRIMEAN WAR 
 
 1856-1861 
 
 Plates VIII, IX, X, XI
 
 The Period Immediately Following the 
 Crimean War 
 
 The dissimilarity between the early and the 
 late portraits of Miss Nightingale has often 
 been remarked. This is not entirely due to 
 the fact that the earlier ones are mostly light 
 crayon drawings, the later, photographs "taken 
 by commandment of the Queen" on her return 
 from the East ; nor is it to be explained by the 
 natural changes occurring in the transition 
 from young maidenhood to early middle age. 
 There is in the best of these later portraits to 
 be clearly traced the birth of a great experi- 
 ence. She has seen and partaken of the travail 
 of the world's tragedy, and it has left its in- 
 delible mark upon her face. The qualities, too, 
 that she has gained in the great conflict are 
 visible. This is especially true of the charming 
 little head shown in Plate Vlll. p]nduranee, 
 unflinching decision, tempered with the kindly 
 tolerance born of a great sympathy, even a 
 humorous appreciation of the frailties of of- 
 ficialdom, are all expressed in the fine curves 
 of the mouth, while in the eyes is the deep con- 
 tentment of one who has seen the Vision, and 
 knows of the foundations of her faith. 
 
 During the five years following the Crimean 
 War, and especially during the immediately 
 succeeding time, Florence Nightingale needed 
 every spark of spiritual force which had come 
 to her from the fires through which she had 
 passed. She and her friend Sydney Herbert, 
 with other loyal coadjutors, were together to 
 shoulder a burden of reform, under which im- 
 mediate action was so imperative, that only by 
 unrelaxing effort could results be achieved. The 
 41
 
 Plate VIII. JIis^ JyuiUTiNuALE ox Her Keturx fkom the 
 Crimea. 
 From a photograph in the collection of the late Mr. J. B. 
 Learmont, Montreal, reproduced also by the London Stereo- 
 scopic Company. 
 
 strain was of a different kind from that in the- 
 Crimean hospitals, but the task to be accom- 
 plished was even more gigantic. On the other 
 hand, the unremitting energy demanded of her 
 told upon her weakened frame, and she became 
 permanently invalided, and saw all her dreams 
 of an active life among the hospital training 
 schools she was about to inaugurate, perma- 
 nently denied her. Moreover, during these 
 years she was to see Lord Herbert himself sink 
 42
 
 under the work. He died in 1861, before he 
 had accomplished what she called the "main- 
 spring" of the whole, — the reform of the in- 
 ternal organization of the British War Office. 
 His death was a blow from which she never 
 quite recovered. During these five years they 
 were in constant communication and consulta- 
 tion, and were allies in the truest sense, giving 
 to each other a comradeship and a loyal sup- 
 port and understanding that was essential to 
 the great results that they attained. Their 
 work was in a sense complementary, for she 
 had the administrative, he the political and 
 executive mind (Sir Edward Cook). Their re- 
 lationship is to be recognized as one of the 
 great friendships of all time, and in a sense it 
 is unique in history. Sydney Herbert was a 
 man of immense charm, with a devoted wife 
 who shared his every thought, and between 
 whom and Miss Nightingale there existed a 
 close intimacy and a strong spiritual tie. Not 
 the least part of the great inheritance that 
 Florence Nightingale has left to her sex, is the 
 fact that such true friendship between man and 
 woman can and does exist. 
 
 Only the first few days of Miss Nightingale's 
 return to England were given up to personal 
 matters. The consciousness pressed home that 
 her experience in the Crimea must not be al- 
 lowed- to sink, even temporarily, into oblivion, 
 but that the iron of public opinion must be 
 struck while still hot, if the evils under which 
 the soldiers had suffered were not to be repeated 
 and perpetuated. The remarkable change 
 wrought in the mortality of the hospital at 
 Scutari by Miss Nightingale and her supporters 
 during the first six months of the war was to 
 be looked upon as a sanitary experiment of the 
 most brilliantly successful kind. It was of vital 
 importance to the future welfare of the army 
 that the evils fought against and corrected in 
 the Crimea, should be exposed in a Royal Com- 
 43
 
 Plate IX. Miss Nightingale (about 1856). 
 
 (Taken by order of the Queen shortly after her return from 
 
 the Crimea.) 
 
 From a picture in the possession of the Canadian Nurses' 
 Association, Montreal. 
 
 mission of enquiry, and that action should be 
 taken against their repetition while indignation 
 still burned hot in public sentiment. Miss 
 Nightingale was keenly alive to the horror that 
 had surrounded her in the Crimea, and never 
 44
 
 forgot that mortality rate of 60% in the Scu- 
 tari Hospital during the first weeks of her stay- 
 there, that blackened the good fame of the 
 British Army regulations. Among her private 
 notes of 1856 is written, ''I stand at the altar 
 of the murdered men, and while I live I fight 
 their cause." 
 
 The required reforms were already the sub- 
 ject of serious discussion between herself and 
 Lord Herbert. It was at this juncture on 
 August 23, 1856, a fortnight after her return, 
 that she was given the opportunity by an invi- 
 tation to Balmoral Castle, of personally setting 
 forth to Her Majesty the sufferings of the 
 Queen's Army in the East, and their possible 
 means of redress. Her preparation for the in- 
 terview was thorough. In consultation with 
 those who had the cause of medical reforms at 
 heart, by the study of statistics, by enquiries, 
 and by the collection of her own notes and 
 memoranda, she armed herself to make the 
 utmost use of her great opportunity. Nor was 
 she disappointed. The Queen and the Prince Con- 
 sort together gave her their fullest attention. 
 "She put before us," wrote the Prince in his 
 diary, "all the defects of our present hospital 
 system, and the reforms that are necessary. We 
 are much pleased with her; she is extremely 
 modest." Nothing could be done, however, 
 without the action of Ministers, and although 
 she returned to London apparently successful, 
 many months of delay and strenuous insistence 
 were to elapse before a Royal Commission, with 
 Lord Herbert as chairman, could be appointed. 
 This took place by Royal Warrant on April 26, 
 1857, shortly after the publication and circula- 
 tion of Miss Nightingale's comprehensive pri- 
 vate report, entitled, "Notes Affecting the 
 Health, Efficiency, and Hospital Administra- 
 tion of the British Army." This book cre- 
 ated a profound impression. Sir John McNeill 
 writes repeatedly in appreciation of its clear- 
 45
 
 ness and vigor, and ends, "I think it contains a 
 body of information and instruction such as 
 no one else, so far as I know, has ever brought 
 to bear upon a similar subject. I regard it as a 
 gift to the Army, and to the country altogether 
 priceless." 
 
 The Commission appointed, its duty was to 
 submit a report of the abuses and projected re- 
 forms, to the House of Commons. Miss Nightin- 
 gale's own evidence took the form of thirty- 
 three pages of written answers to questions in 
 the "Blue Book" report. "It was distin- 
 guished," in the words of an Army doctor of 
 the time, "by a clearness, a logical coherence, a 
 pungency and abruptness, a ring as of true 
 metal, that is altogether admirable." 
 
 The Report itself was written by Mr. Her- 
 bert, with much assistance from Miss Nightin- 
 gale. It recommended the appointment of 
 four sub-commissions, whose functions should 
 be : to put the barracks in sanitary order ; to 
 organize a statistical department ; to institute 
 a medical school ; to reconstruct the Army Med- 
 ical Department, and to revise its hospital regu- 
 lations. To it was appended a statistical study 
 made by Miss Nightingale, of the civil and mili- 
 tary mortality statistics in certain London par- 
 ishes, from which the startling fact revealed 
 itself that the rate of mortality among the sol- 
 diers living in barracks was five times as great 
 as that of civilians living at home. To force 
 this existing fact, namely, that the Army in 
 time of peace was being exposed to the effects 
 of bad sanitation with disastrous results, upon 
 the attention of the House, meant a hearing, 
 which perhaps the evils of the Crimean War, 
 already becoming a thing of the past, might 
 possibly not obtain, even so soon after the ter- 
 rible events. After much activity on the part 
 of all interested, the Report was formally acted 
 upon, and the four sub-commissions author- 
 ized. They immediately set to work, with Miss 
 4(J
 
 Plate X. Miss Nightingale on Her 
 Return from the Ckisiea. 
 From a photograph in the possession 
 of Miss Hall, Lady Superintendent of 
 the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, 
 Boston. 
 
 Nightingale the heart of each, herself now ill 
 and weak from the prolonged exertion of these 
 strenuous months, after the strain in the 
 Crimea. It was quite possibly the effects of 
 these months of unremitting exertion, at a time 
 when her body demanded rest, that left her a 
 permanent invalid. A diagnosis of Miss 
 Nightingale's malady has not, so far as we 
 know, been framed, but her own statement 
 about herself in her letters to her medical 
 friends, suggest that she suffered from some 
 form of cardiac insufficiency associated with 
 cardiac dilatation and a paroxysmal tachycardia. 
 Even at her lowest ebb, she never put aside her 
 harness, but met emergencies as they arose un- 
 til, in February, 1858, the various investigations 
 had been made and the resulting recommenda- 
 tions were embodied in a second Report from the 
 Commission. 
 
 47
 
 The results were worthy of the heavy price 
 she paid in the permanent sacrifice of her 
 health. Each commission carried its work 
 through to a successful issue, with beneficial re- 
 sults that are felt in our own day in a hundred 
 directions. The Crimean episode will always 
 take a leading place in the story of Florence 
 Nightingale's life. But, as has been said, its 
 greatest importance lay in the insight, experi- 
 ence, and political influence which she gained 
 in it, and which made it possible for her to 
 inspire these far-reaching reforms. 
 
 The results of the work of the four sub- 
 commissions may be briefly summarized as: the 
 better barrack accommodation and military hos- 
 pital construction, which have resulted in the 
 improved health of the British soldier at home 
 today; the revision of army medical statistics 
 and the establishment of British army statistics 
 on a higher plane than that of any other coun- 
 try in the world at that time, a task in which 
 the statistical skill, energy, and persistence of 
 Miss Nightingale was united with the experi- 
 ence of the celebrated Dr. William Farr; the 
 foundation of the Army Medical School, and 
 the splendidly equipped Royal Medical College ; 
 and the formulation of a code for regulating 
 the relative duties of regimental medical offi- 
 cers, and organizing the detail of the internal 
 administration of military and other hospitals. 
 
 The third sub-commission, to establish an 
 Army Medical School, had the longest and 
 weariest struggle against the obstruction of sub- 
 ordinates of them all, but it accomplished most 
 important results. The Army Medical School, 
 afterwards removed to Netley, was peculiarly 
 Miss Nightingale's child, and she watched over 
 its early .progress with earnest solicitude. In 
 every part of the administration the professors 
 sought her assistance, and she made a successful 
 fight, against much opposition, to have pathol- 
 ogy recognized in the professoriate. Her serv- 
 48
 
 Plate XI. Miss Nightingale 
 (IN 1858) 
 
 From a photograph by Goodman in 
 the possession of Dr. Collins Warren, 
 Boston. 
 
 ices as the true founder of the School were ac- 
 knowledged at the time. Dr. Longmore, the 
 professor of military surgery, told the students 
 that it was she "whose opinion, derived from 
 large experience and remarkable sagacity in ob- 
 servation, exerted an especial influence in origi- 
 nating and establishing this school." "For 
 originating this school, ' ' wrote Sir James Clark, 
 "we have to thank Miss Nightingale, who, had 
 her long and persevering efforts effected no 
 other improvement in the army, would have con- 
 ferred by this alone an inestimable boon upon 
 the British soldier." 
 
 Apart from the work of the commissions, 
 many other army reforms were instituted by 
 Mr. Herbert and inspired by Miss Nightingale. 
 Such were the committee to reorganize the 
 
 49
 
 Army Hospital Corps and the Soldiers' Recrea- 
 tion Clubs. The latter were organized by them 
 with much success, not only in England, but at 
 Gibraltar, Chatham and Montreal, which was 
 then a military post. The regimental institute 
 attached to every modern barrack is the direct 
 outcome of this branch of their pioneer work. 
 
 Such is a brief outline of the epoch-making 
 work carried on by Sydney Herbert and Flor- 
 ence Nightingale during these five years imme- 
 diately following her return from the East. 
 Great as it was, however, these reforms in army 
 sanitation were not by any means the only side 
 of her activities during this period. Of equal 
 importance was: (1) her work in the reform of 
 modern hospital construction as a whole, (2) in 
 the introduction of statistical forms for hos- 
 pital use, and (3) especially in the foundation 
 of modern nursing. 
 
 Miss Nightingale's prestige in matters of 
 hospital construction was recognized before her 
 book, "Notes on Hospitals," appeared, in 1858. 
 This book was written in connection with her 
 work on the first sub-commission, and is a tech- 
 nical study of the subject supplemented with 
 numerous maps and diagrams, and recommend- 
 ing the elementary principles of sanitation, 
 which were not then generally recognized, and 
 the pavilion system. "It appears to me," 
 wrote Sir James Paget, "to be the most val- 
 uable contribution in application to medical in- 
 stitutions I have ever read." After its appear- 
 ance she was widely consulted on hospital con- 
 struction at home and abroad, and revised the 
 plans of many hospitals erected in Great Brit- 
 ain, Germany, Belgium, Spain, France, India 
 and America. 
 
 Her work as a statistician has already been 
 referred to and her alliance with Dr. William 
 Farr. Her statistical forms for the use of hos- 
 pitals were presented at the International Con- 
 gress in London in 1860, and were introduced 
 50
 
 in the leading London hospitals. On June 21, 
 1861, a meeting was held at Guy's Hospital and 
 it was unanimously agreed — by delegates from 
 Ouy's, St. Bartholomew's, St. Thomas's, the 
 London, St. George's, King's College, the Mid- 
 dlesex, and St. Mary's— "that the metropolitan 
 hospitals should adopt one uniform system of 
 registration of patients; that each hospital 
 should publish its statistics annually, and that 
 Miss Nightingale's Model Forms should, as far 
 as possible, be adopted." 
 
 Her work in the foundation of modern nurs- 
 ing has been described as one of the three great 
 contributions of the nineteenth century to the 
 relief of human suffering in disease. In the 
 alleviation which it has supplied it takes rank 
 with the discovery of anesthesia by Sir James 
 Simpson, and asepsis by Sir Joseph Lister, 
 
 The Nightingale Training School for Nurses 
 was opened at St. Thomas's Hospital on June 
 24, 1860, under the administration of the Night- 
 ingale Fund, which amounted to £44,000, raised 
 throughout the British Empire, as a tribute to 
 the Crimean heroine in 1855. Miss Nightingale 
 planned every detail in its organization, and 
 assisted the first matron, Mrs. Wardroper, in 
 the discharge of her activities. She herself in- 
 terviewed and accepted candidates and others, 
 and afterwards preserved the closest touch with 
 the pupil nurses and graduates. The influence 
 of the school spread rapidly, and the Nightingale 
 nurses, both in Great Britain, the Colonies, and 
 the United States, made their way as superin- 
 tendents. The Blockley Hospital in Philadel- 
 phia, and the Montreal General Hospital here, 
 were two of those that owned a Nightingale 
 superintendent. In Germany, Sweden, France, 
 and Austria, too, the lead was followed, and 
 nurses were trained along the same lines. Thus 
 the seed that was carried by Pastor Fliedner 
 from Elizabeth Fry in London to Kaiserwerth 
 in Germany, was transplanted by Florence 
 51
 
 Nightingale again on English soil, and grew into- 
 a mighty tree. 
 
 It has been well said that Miss Nightingale 
 did not originate the idea of trained nursing of 
 the sick, for there were sisterhoods and great 
 nurses before her time. What she did do was 
 to place the art of nursing on the plane of a 
 profession, and to transfer it, as the books of 
 the British census show, from the category "Do- 
 mestic," in which it stood before her time, to- 
 that of "Medicine." Both by precept and ex- 
 ample she taught and tried to instill into her 
 nurses the principles and the code of honor that 
 raise an occupation into a profession. She 
 raised a great enthusiasm among the women of 
 her time, many of whom grasped her meaning, 
 and worked with her to attain this end. She 
 took it out, too, of the place in which it had 
 been put before her time by the religious or- 
 ders, who regarded their nursing chiefly as a 
 means of self-abnegation and humiliation. She 
 believed, no one more strongly, that the true 
 nurse must have a sense of vocation, and that 
 without it she should not enter the profession,^ 
 and with her "nursing was a sacred calling, 
 only to be followed to good purpose, by those 
 who pursued it as the service of God, through 
 the highest kind of service to man." But she 
 recognized also, that the skilled services of the 
 trained nurse should form an honorable means 
 of livelihood, and insisted on the public recog- 
 nition of this fact. Miss Nightingale never 
 thought or cared about what has been called 
 women's rights, but she was essentially a pio- 
 neer in the interests of her sex. By the high 
 estimate and value she placed upon the skilled 
 services of women in a capacity in which only 
 they can serve, she raised the public sense of 
 the value of those services all along the line, 
 and there is probably no other woman to whom 
 modern women owe so much. Her words on the 
 subject of the modern feminist movement,. 
 52
 
 which was just beginning in her day, and which 
 close her little volume "Notes on Nursing," are 
 an epitome of wisdom, and strike directly home. 
 
 ''I would earnestly ask my sisters tj keep clear 
 of both the jargons now current everywhere 
 {for they are equally jargons); of the jargon, 
 namely, about the 'rights' of women, which 
 urges women to do all that men do, merely he- 
 cause men do it, and without regard to whether 
 4his is the best that women can do; and of the 
 jargon ivhich urges women to do nothing that 
 men do, merely because they are women. Surely 
 woman should bring the best she has, whatever 
 that is, to the work of God's world, without at- 
 tending to either of these cries. It does not 
 make a good thing, that it is remarkable that a 
 ivoman shoidd have been able to do it. Neither 
 does it make a thing bad, which would have 
 been good had a man done it, that it has been 
 done by a woman. 
 
 ''Oh, leave these jargons and go your way 
 straight to God's work, in simplicity and sin- 
 gleness of heart." 
 
 The "Notes on Nursing" was published in 
 1860. It is the best known of her writings, and 
 in the purity of its English, the vigor and sim- 
 plicity of its style, and the fundamental sound- 
 ness of its teaching, is in the highest sense a 
 classic. It is a book which anyone may read 
 with delight and information today, and should 
 be republished in popular form. Florence 
 Nightingale possessed the literary faculty in a 
 very high degree, and was a voluminous writer, 
 but she held this, as she did her social accom- 
 plishments, very lightly, to be used only as a 
 means to an end, and to be considered, rather 
 as a "temptation" to be avoided, that might 
 lead her away from the purpose to which she 
 had consecrated herself, and never as an end 
 in itself. This is the reason, that although her 
 contributions to the literature of her time are 
 53
 
 as important and probably as numerous as those 
 of her illustrious contemporaries, Mrs. Gaskell, 
 George Eliot, and Harriet Martineau, they are 
 not recognized as such, for they are largely on 
 technical subjects and many of them are hid- 
 den in the Blue Books of the day. It is only 
 when she is dealing, almost as it were by acci- 
 dent, with subjects of wider intellectual scope, 
 that her power of literary expression and her 
 clearness of vision in the realm of abstract 
 thought are fully revealed to us. The best il- 
 lustrations are to be found in her lengthy cor- 
 respondence with such men as William Jowett 
 and John Stuart Mill, and in her great religio- 
 sociological treatise, entitled "Suggestions for 
 Thought to Searchers for Truth among the 
 Artizans of England and to Searchers after 
 Religious Truth," published in three volumes, 
 containing 729 pages in all, by Eyre and Spot- 
 tiswoode, London, in 1860. Her yearly "Ad- 
 dresses to the Probationer Nurses in the 'Night- 
 ingale Fund' at St. Thomas' Hospital," printed 
 for a limited private circulation during the 
 years 1873 to 1888, stand out also as models of 
 clear diction embodying principles of deep eth- 
 ical and spiritual force. The nineteenth cen- 
 tury has been called pre-eminently the century 
 of great w^omen. It is from the literary and 
 philosophic, as well as the philanthropic side, 
 that Florence Nightingale possesses an eminent 
 place within the circle. 
 
 54
 
 FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE IN 
 LATER LIFE 
 
 1861-1910 
 
 Plates XII, XIII, XIV, XV
 
 Florence Nightingale in Later Life. 
 
 Sydney Herbert died in 1861 when Florence 
 "Nightingale was forty-one years of age. She 
 lived nearly fifty years longer, and for thirty- 
 five of these retained the full use of all her 
 faculties and the same phenomenal capacity for 
 accomplishing heavy tasks in numerous fields 
 simultaneously, each of which was, in itself, 
 sufficient for the full powers of a single indi- 
 vidual. His death threw her into a state of 
 extreme despondency, for she had lost not only 
 a dear personal friend, but the ally on whom 
 her sanitary reforms depended. From the se- 
 clusion of a deep retirement she published a 
 short "Life of Lord Herbert," in which she 
 ascribes every part of their reforms to his work. 
 Had he been writing the book he would have 
 made the same statement in relation to herself, 
 and in a sense both statements would have been 
 true, so completely interdependent was their 
 action. In ascribing the credit for all the 
 achievements of the Crimean climax and those 
 resulting from it, the names of Sydney Herbert 
 .and Florence Nightingale must always hold an 
 equal place. The British public recognized this 
 fact in the erection, in the winter of 1914, of 
 the dual statues to them which stand on either 
 ■side of the Crimean monument in London today. 
 
 Space does not permit of even the complete 
 enumeration of all the numerous reforms en- 
 acted in this later period of her life. Probably 
 the most comprehensive, and certainly that in 
 which an immense portion of her time and en- 
 ergy was expended to the very end of her active 
 life, was the improved sanitation of India, — a 
 problem arising out of the work of the Crimean 
 57
 
 commissions, and in which she was intimately^ 
 associated with Sir John Lawrence, Sir Bartle 
 Frere, Lord Roberts, and other leading East 
 Indians. She stood for advanced methods, 
 brought to the evidence irrefutable masses of 
 statistical facts, and fought desperately, among 
 other things, for universal irrigation. She was 
 known at the time in high quarters as the Provi- 
 dence of India. "The Indian Sanitary Com- 
 mission's Report," a huge volume consisting of 
 2028 pages of small print, contains evidence of 
 her work on almost every page. 
 
 In the work of the War Office again, she 
 maintained, after Lord Herbert's death, a very 
 intimate relationship, which in time came to 
 assume the relation of an advisory counsel. This 
 was because in many questions she had come to 
 be considered the first expert of her time, and 
 also because, in Sir Edward Cook's phrase, she 
 was rightly regarded as the official legatee of 
 Lord Sydney Herbert, and one who knew, as no 
 one else could, the spirit of the uncompleted 
 reforms he had projected, and the traditions 
 which had inspired one who had held a very high 
 place in the public trust. She was concerned 
 in this way, not only in questions of army sani- 
 tation in time of peace, but in all the problems 
 that arose in the care of the sick and wounded 
 in tlie various wars that broke out dur- 
 ing this long period, and her connection 
 with the organization of the Red Cross Society, 
 and the various associations formed for 
 the care of the sick and wounded, runs 
 like a silver thread through the story of 
 this latter part of her life. Thus we find her, 
 during the course of the American Civil "War, 
 writing on October 8, 1861, to Dr. Farr, that 
 she had sent to the Secretary of War at Wash- 
 ington, on application, all the War Office's 
 forms and reports, statistical and otherwise. At 
 this time also a Sanitary Commission was ap- 
 pointed at Washington, which reproduced much 
 58
 
 Plate XII. Miss Nightingale in 1887. 
 From a picture by Sir William Richmond at Claydon, and 
 reproduced in Sir Edward Cook's Life of Florence Nightingale. 
 
 of Miss Nightingale's Crimean work. Again, on 
 December 18, 1861, we find her revising the 
 draft of the commissariat and army medical 
 stores for the projected expedition from Eng- 
 land to Canada in connection with the Trent 
 affair. 
 
 The inception of the Red Cross Society on an 
 international basis owes its origin to the sug- 
 gestion of a Swiss physician, Henri Dunant. 
 
 59
 
 In the year 1859, when the full flood of Miss 
 Nightingale's Crimean achievements were still 
 fresh in the public mind, the bloody battle of 
 Solferino was fought, and the wounded lay 
 three days upon the battlefield untended, except 
 for the irregular ministrations of neighboring 
 peasants. Shocked at the sight of the tragedy, 
 and proclaiming the possibility of organized 
 aid that the Crimean campaign had shown, 
 M. Dunant carried the proposal to the leading 
 European powers, "that an organization with 
 international privileges be established for the 
 care of the sick and wounded in war." As a 
 result, in August, 1864, an International Con- 
 gress was held at Geneva, which framed the 
 famous Geneva Convention, on which the con- 
 stitution of the present Red Cross Society is based, 
 and which declares medical aid on the field to 
 be under the protection of a recognized neutral- 
 ity. The British delegates to the Congress were 
 Miss Nightingale's friends, Dr. Longmore and 
 Dr. Rutherford, and she drafted their instruc- 
 tions. In 1872, M. Dunant in a paper read in 
 London, said : * ' Though I am known as the 
 founder of the Red Cross and the originator of 
 the Convention of Geneva, it is to an English- 
 woman that all the honor of that Convention is 
 due. What inspired me to go to Italy during 
 the war of 1859 was the work of Miss Florence 
 Nightingale in the Crimea." 
 
 In the War of 1866 between Prussia, Austria 
 and Italy, all three of the combatants sought 
 and obtained the assistance of Miss Nightingale 
 and she herself joined and took part in the 
 London Relief Association for the care of the 
 wounded. In 1867 a gold medal was awarded to 
 her by the Conference of Red Cross Societies in 
 Paris, and in 1870, the Austrian Patriotic So- 
 ciety for the Relief of Wounded Soldiers elected 
 her a member. During the whole duration of the 
 War of 1870-71, she was again plunged into cease- 
 less activity, for both Germany and France del- 
 GO
 
 uged her with correspondence. She met all de- 
 mands, and rendered assistance impartially to 
 the sick and wounded of both sides, so that in 
 July, 1871, tlie French SocietS des Secours aux 
 Blesses conferred its bronze cross upon her, 
 and in September of that year she was deco- 
 rated by the German Emperor with the Prus- 
 sian Cross of Merit. In spite of the strict neu- 
 trality she maintained in giving aid to the 
 wounded of both sides, it is interesting to us, 
 in this year of war, 1916, to know that her per- 
 sonal sympathies were rather with the French. 
 "I think," she wrote on December 20, 1870, 
 "that if the conduct of the French for the last 
 three months had been shown by any other 
 nation it would have been called, as it is, sub- 
 lime. The uncomplaining endurance, the sad 
 and severe self-restraint of Paris under a siege 
 now of three months would have rendered im- 
 mortal a city of ancient Rome." And in writ- 
 ing to the Crown Princess of Prussia on hos- 
 pital matters, she pleaded for clemency. ' ' Prussia 
 would remember," she was sure, "the future 
 wars and misery always brought about by 
 trampling too violently on a fallen foe." "We 
 know, alas, only too well, how sadly her assur- 
 ance was disappointed. During Lord Wolse- 
 ley's Egyptian campaign of 1882 she was active 
 in organizing the female nurses who were re- 
 quested, and emerged from her seclusion to at- 
 tend several military reviews in London, and 
 then and thereafter assisted in the reorganiza- 
 tion of the Army Hospital Service, which time 
 was again bringing into disrepute, and the in- 
 terests of which she was able to forward mate- 
 rially during the course of a visit to Balmoral 
 in 1883, to receive the decoration of the Royal 
 Red Cross from the Queen's hand. 
 
 It is thus seen that among the many honors 
 and tributes that were showered upon her in the 
 closing years of her life none were more in keep- 
 ing wdtli the spirit of it than that expressed at 
 61
 
 Plate XIII. Miss Nightingale in Later Life. 
 
 Portrait taken by Messrs. S. G. PajTie and Sons of Aylesbury, England, and published in the Sphere. 
 
 possession of Miss H. A. Des Brisay, Montreal. 
 
 From a copy in 
 
 62
 
 the Eighth International Conference of Red 
 Cross Societies in London in June, 1907, to 
 which Queen Alexandra sent a message referring 
 to ''the pioneer of the First Red Cross move- 
 ment. Miss Florence Nightingale, whose heroic 
 efforts on behalf of suffering humanity 
 will be recognized and admired by ail 
 ages as long as the world shall last.',' 
 The resolution read: "The great and incom- 
 parable name of Miss Florence Nightingale, 
 whose merits in the field of humanity are never 
 to be forgotten, and who raised the care of the 
 sick to the position of a charitable art, imposes 
 on the Eighth International Conference of Red 
 Cross Societies the noble duty of rendering 
 homage to her merits by expressing warmly its 
 high veneration." 
 
 Another large sphere of activity which arose 
 since the time and outside of the department of 
 Sydney Herbert, was that of Work-House Re- 
 form, a movement which grew directly out of 
 the work of the Nightingale Training School. In 
 the year 1864, no legislation provided for the 
 care of the sick poor in England, and an ab- 
 solute lack of attendance combined with a de- 
 graded class of patients to make the conditions 
 the worst possible. From a noted philan- 
 thropist came the suggestion, that at the Liver- 
 pool Work-House Infirmary, one of the most 
 difficult institutions of all, the experiment 
 should be tried of placing twelve Nightingale 
 nui-ses in control, with a superintendent chosen 
 from among them. The story of Miss Alice 
 Jones, a gentle girl of high religious views, a 
 graduate of Kaiserwerth, and later of the St. 
 Thomas's School, who struggled and won vic- 
 tory among vicious patients and a difficult man- 
 agement, and who gave up her life in doing so, 
 is one of the romances of the history of nursing. 
 It is told by Miss Nightingale, under the title 
 Una and the Lion, ' ' in good words. The suc- 
 cess won here led the way for the Metropolitan
 
 Plate XIV. Florence Nightingale in Her Koom in South Street at the 
 
 Age of Eighty-Six. 
 From a photograph by Miss Bosanquet, 1906, and reproduced in Sir Edward 
 Cook's Life of Florence Nightingale. 
 
 64
 
 Poor Act of 1867, which was a starting-point of 
 medical relief to the poor in England, and is 
 to be traced to the efforts of many earnest men 
 and women, and chief among them to Miss 
 Nightingale. 
 
 The failure of one of her attempts, that is, of 
 the Training School at the Lying-in Depart- 
 ment of the King's College Hospital, is to be 
 recorded. It is of importance chiefly today, 
 because it led to the publication of her "Notes 
 on Lying-in Institutions," which is to be com- 
 pared to the "Notes on Nursing" in its clear- 
 ness and originality and the soundness of its 
 practical applications. 
 
 The Nightingale Training School Avas always 
 under Miss Nightingale's supervision, but after 
 the year 1872, when she retired, more or less, 
 from more active association with other forms 
 of work, and when it was removed to the present 
 new St. Thomas's building, she identified her- 
 self still more closely with it, and it sheds 
 other light upon her extraordinarily many- 
 sided character. Here again, as in her youth, 
 we see her from the domestic side. She is in 
 close contact with her nurses, knowing each one 
 personally, criticising and loving, chiding and 
 helping, always on the highest plane of prin- 
 ciple, and with a depth of personal feeling and 
 sympathy that brought her into the closest 
 range of influence with those whom she was 
 trying to inspire. Every year she formulated 
 her teaching in a hospital sermon, which took 
 the form of a letter, publicly read to the 
 nurses. In these days her home at South Street 
 was always open to her pupils, whom she met 
 here in a sense on equal terms, and all loved her 
 dearly. Just as in her beautiful girlhood she 
 had sat at the feet of Elizabeth Fry, and had 
 drunk to her soul's fulfilment of the springs of 
 that ripened humanitarianism, so in her own 
 latter days, these daughters of her heart's best 
 wisdom gathered about her to learn from her 
 65
 
 Plate XV. Florence Nightingale in 1907. 
 From a watereolor drawing by Miss F. Alicia De Biden 
 Footner, and reproduced in Sir Edward Cook's Life of Flor- 
 ence Nightingale. 
 
 66
 
 own lips what it was she would have them to do. 
 As the years closed in about her, her nurses 
 stood to her in the relation of ' ' affectionate chil- 
 dren" or "dear sisters," who had gone out into 
 the world to carry her gospel of what the art 
 of nursing meant to many distant lands. 
 
 In the fulness of time, after a life so crowded 
 with productive labor, philosophic thought, and 
 literary activity, so rich in sympathies and 
 affection, and so transfigured by a deep re- 
 ligious faith that one could scarcely imagine its 
 equal, death came to her, three years after the 
 Freedom of the City of London and the King's 
 Order of Merit had been conferred upon her. 
 To the end she counted herself an unprofitable 
 servant, and realized only the high values of 
 those things which she had struggled to attain. 
 
 67
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 Miss Nightingale's Writings 
 "Writings about Miss Nightingale
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 The following selections from ]\Iiss Nightin- 
 gale's more important published writings, which 
 are taken from the excellent bibliography given 
 in Sir Edward Cook's Life will be of interest to 
 the readers of this address. To it are added the 
 titles of a few of the more important writings 
 about her gleaned from the same source. For 
 further details those interested are referred to 
 the appendices of Vol. II of the above book, 
 which contain a mine of authentic information. 
 
 MISS nightingale's writings. 
 
 (1) The Institution of Kaiserswerth on the Rhine, 
 for the Practical Training of Deaconesses, under the 
 direction of the Rev. Pastor Fliedner, embracing the 
 support and care of a Hospital, Infant and Industrial 
 Schools, and a Female Penitentiary, London, 1S51. 
 Octavo, paper wrapper, pp. 32. 
 
 (2) Letters from Egypt London: Printed by A. 
 and G. A. Spottiswoode. 1854. Octavo, pp. 334 and 79. 
 (The letters were written in 1849 and 1850). 
 
 (3) Report upon the State of the Hospitals of the 
 British Army in the Crimea and Scutari, 1855. pp. 
 330-331, 342-343. 
 
 (4) Statements exhibiting the Voluntary Contribu- 
 tions received by Miss Nightingale for the use of the 
 British War Hospital in the East, with the Mode of 
 their Distribution in 1854, 1855, 1856. London: 
 Harrison, 1857. Octavo, red-paper wrappers, pp. 68. 
 
 (5) Notes on Matters affecting the Health. Effi- 
 ciency, and Hospital Administration of the British 
 Army. Founded chiefly on the Experience of the 
 late War. Presented by request to the Secretary of 
 State of War. London: Harrison and Sons, 1858. 
 Octavo, pp. 567. 
 
 (6) Subsidiary Notes as to the Introduction of 
 Female Nursing into Military Hospitals in Peace and 
 in War. Presented by request to the Secretary of 
 State of War. London: Harrison and Sons, 1858. 
 Octavo, pp. 133. 
 
 71
 
 (7) Papers on the Hospital at Netley. Examiner, 
 July 24, 1858; Saturday iieview, August 18; Builder, 
 July 24 ; Daily News, July 28 ; The Lancet, August 14 ; 
 and the Leeds Mercury, August 21. 1858. 
 
 (8) Mortality of the British Army, at Home and 
 Abroad, and during the Russian War, as compared 
 with the Mortality of the Civil Population in England. 
 Illustrated by Tables and Diagrams. London: 
 Printed by Harrison and Sons, 1858, pp. 21. 
 
 (9) A Contribution to the Sanitary History of the 
 British Army during the late War with Russia. 
 Illustrated with Tables and Diagrams. London: 
 Printed by Harrison and Sons, 1859. Large folio, 
 pp. 16 and diagrams. 
 
 (10) Notes on Hospitals: being two Papers read 
 before the National Association for the Promotion of 
 Social Science, at Liverpool, in October 1858. With 
 Evidence given to the Royal Commissioners on the 
 State of the Army in 1857. By Florence Nightingale. 
 London : John W. Parker and Son, 1859. Octavo, 
 pp. 108. Second Edition. 1859. Third Edition en- 
 larged and altered, 187 pages. 1863, published by Long- 
 mans. 
 
 (11) Notes on Nursing: What it is and what it 
 is not. By Florence Nightingale. London : Harrison, 
 1859. Octavo, pp. 70. Sold very quickly (15,000 
 copies within a month of publication). 
 
 (12) Notes on Nursing: What it is and what it is 
 not. By Florence Nightingale. New Edition, revised, 
 and enlarged. London : Harrison, 1860. Octavo, pp. 
 224. Reprinted by Appleton and Co., in New York, 
 and American editions appeared in 1860, 1876, 1879, 
 1.8S3. 1891, 1901, 1906, 1908. 1909. Foreign Transla- 
 tions. Translated into Italian 1860 and 1887, into 
 Gei-man 1861, into French 1862. 
 
 (13) Proceedings of the International Statistical 
 Congress. Fourth Session. 1860. Contains numerous 
 Papers and Reports by Miss Nightingale. 
 
 (14) Suggestions for Thought to the Searchers 
 after Truth among the Artizaus of England. London : 
 Eyre and Spottiswoode. 1860. 3 vols. Octavo, pp. 
 292, 411, 126. 
 
 (15) Notes on Nursing for the Labouring Classes. 
 By Florence Nightingale. London : Harrison, 1861. 
 Bound in limp red cloth. Reprinted in 1865, 1868, 
 1876. 1883, 1885. 1,888, 1890, 1894, 1898. 
 
 (16) Hospital Statistics and Hospital Plans. By 
 Florence Nightingale. Reprinted from the Trans- 
 actions of the National Association for the Promotion 
 of Social Science (Dublin Meeting. August 1861). 
 
 72
 
 London : Emily Faithfull and Co., 18012, pp. 8 In- 
 cludes the Model Statistical Forms which were 
 approved by the International Statistical Congress. 
 
 (17) Army Sanitary Administration and its Reform 
 under the late Lord Herbert. London : M'Corquo- 
 dale and Co., 1862. A pamphlet, 8vo, pp. 11. 
 
 (18) Thomas Alexander, C. B., Director-General 
 Army Medical Department. A Memorial I^ietter by 
 Miss Nightingale, printed in the Weekly Scotsman, 
 September 13. the Lancet. September 27, 1802, and 
 many other papers. 
 
 (19) Observations on the Evidence contained in the 
 Stational Report submitted to the Royal Commission 
 on the Sanitary State of the Army in Inlia. By 
 Florence Nightingale. London : Edward Stamford, 
 1863. Octavo, pp. 92. This is a reprint of the "Obser*. 
 vations," with all the illustrations (see No. 33). 
 
 Extracts from the "Observations" and from "How 
 People may live and not die in India" (No. 41) were 
 printed in the Soldier's Friend, July 1, 1-865. 
 
 (20) Sanitary Statistics of Native Colonial Schools 
 and Hospitals. Bv Florence Nightingale. London : 
 1863. A pamphlet," pp. 67. 
 
 (21) How People may live and not die in India. 
 By Florence Nightingale. (Read at the Meeting of 
 the National As.sociation for the Promotion of Social 
 Science, held at Edinburgh, October 18()3.) London: 
 Emily Faithfull. 1803. A pamphlet. 8v(>. pp. 11. 
 Second edition, November 1864. published by Long- 
 mans, 8vo, pp. 18, with a new preface (August 1864). 
 
 (22) Suggestions in regard to Sanitary Works re- 
 quired for Improving Indian Stations, prepared by the 
 Barrack and Hospital Improvement Commission. 
 Blue-Book (Suggestions, pp. 1-37), issued 1864. 
 
 (23) Suggestions on a System of Nursing for Hos- 
 pitals in India. February 24. 1865. Folio, pp. 18. 
 
 (24)' The Organization of Nursing in a Large Town 
 (an account of the Liverpool Nurses' Training 
 School). With an Introduction and Notes by Floi*- 
 ence Nightingale. Liverpool. 1865. Octavo, pp. 103. 
 
 (25) Suggestions on the Subject of providing, train- 
 ing, and organizing Nurses for the Sick Poor in Work- 
 house Infirmaries. Blue-book, 1807, paper XVI, pp. 
 64-79. 
 
 (26) "Una and the Lion." Good Words. .Tune. 1868. 
 pp. 360-300. An account of Miss Agnes Elizabeth 
 Jones, "the pioneer of workhouse nursing." 
 
 (27) Memorandum on Measures adopted for Sani- 
 tary Improvement in India up to the end of 1867; 
 together with Abstracts of the Sanitary Reports 
 
 73
 
 hitherto forwarded from Bengal, Madras, and Bom- 
 bay. Printed by the order of the Secretary of State 
 of India in Council, 1868. 
 
 (28) Addresses from Miss Nightingale to the Pro- 
 bationer Nurses in the '"Nightingale Fund" School at 
 St. Thomas's Hospital. Printed for Private Circu- 
 lation in May, 1872 ; May 23, 1873 ; July 23, 1874 ; May 
 26, 1875 ; April 28, 1876 ; July, 1878; Easter, 1879; May 
 6, 1881 ; May 23. 1883 ; July 3, 18&4 ; New Year's Day, 
 1886 ; May 16, 1888 ; June, 1897 ; May 28, 1900 ; Janu- 
 ary, 1905. 
 
 (29) "A 'Note' of Interrogation." Fi*aser's Mag- 
 azine, May, 1873, pp. 567-577. 
 
 (30) "A Sub-'Note of Interrogation.' What will 
 our Religion be in 1999?" Eraser's Magazine, July, 
 1873, pp. 25-36. 
 
 (31) Life or Death in India. A Paper read at the 
 meeting of the National Association for the Promotion 
 of Social Science, Norwich, October 1873. With an 
 appendix on "Life or Death by Irrigation." London : 
 Harrison and Sons, 1874. A pamphP t, pp. 63. 
 
 (32) "Irrigation and Means of Transit in India."^ 
 The Illustrated Loudon News, August 1, 1874. 
 
 (33) Suggestions for Improving the Nursing Ser- 
 vice of Hospitals and on the Methods of Training 
 Nurses for the Sick Poor. Folio, pp. 18. August, 
 1874. 
 
 (34) The Zemindar, the Sun, and the Watering Pot 
 as affecting Life or Death in India. Folio, pp. 195. 
 
 (35) "The Famine in Madras." The Illustrated 
 London News, June 29, 1877. 
 
 (36) "The United Empire and the Indian Peasant." 
 Journal of the National Indian Association, June, 
 1878, pp. 232-245. 
 
 (37) "A Water Arrival in India. By a Commis- 
 sioner." Good Words, July, 1878, pp. 493-496. 
 
 Describing, in the language of the Royal Progress, 
 the opening of the Kana Nuddee (Blind River) in the 
 Hooghly District. 
 
 (38) "The People of India." Nineteenth Century, 
 August, 1878, pp. 193-221. 
 
 (39) "A Missionary Health Officer in India." Good 
 Words, July, August, September, 1879, pp. 492-496, 
 565-571, 635-640. 
 
 (40) "Irrigation and Water Transit in India." 
 Illustrated London News, May 10, 24, 31. 
 
 (41) Can we educate Education in India to educate 
 "Men"? Journal of the National Indian Association, 
 
 74
 
 Aniiust. September. October, 1879. pp. 417-430, 478- 
 491, 527-558. 
 
 (42) "Hiuts and Suggestions on Thrift." Thrift, 
 Jauuary, 1SS2, p. 4. 
 
 (43) Training of Nurses and Nursing the Sick. 
 Articles .occup.ving pp. 1038-1043. 1043-1049 of Quain's 
 Dictionary of Medicine. 
 
 (44) The Dumb shall si>eak, and the Deaf shall 
 hear ; or, the Ryot, the Zemindar, and the Govern- 
 ment. A Paper read at the meeting of the East India 
 Association, and printed in its Journal, .July, 1883. 
 Reprinted separately, pp. 48. 
 
 (45) "Our Indian Stewardship." Nineteenth Cen- 
 tury, August, 1883, pp. 329-338. 
 
 (4G) "The Bengal Tenancy Bill." Contemporary 
 Review, October, 1883, pp. 587-602. 
 
 (47) "Hospitals." Article in Chambers' Ency- 
 clopaedia, new edition, revised and partly re-written 
 by F. N. 
 
 (48) Health Teaching in Town and Villages. Rural 
 Hygiene. By Florence Nightingale. London : Spot- 
 tiswoode and Co., 1894. A pamphlet, pp. 27. 
 
 (49) Village Sanitation in India. A Paper for the 
 Tropical Section of the 8th International Congress of 
 Hvgiene and Demography at Budapest. London: 
 August 20, 1894. 
 
 (50) A Letter from Florence Nightingale about the 
 Vict<orian Order of Nurses in Canada. A small 
 pamphlet, in white paper wrapi)ers, pp. 4. The letter, 
 to Lady Aberdeen, is dated May 5, 1898. 
 
 (51) The Soldier in War Time. Letter to the 
 Balaclava Survivors, printed in the Daily Graphic, 
 October 26. 1899. 
 
 (52) Message to Crimean Veterans. Printed at p. 
 47 of a pamphlet entitled the Crimean and Indian 
 Mutiny Veterans' A.ssociation, Bristol. Bristol, 1905. 
 
 II 
 
 WRITINGS ABOUT MISS NIGHTINGALE. 
 
 (1) "Who is 'Mrs.' Nightingale?" A biographical 
 article in the Examiner (reprinted in the Times, 
 October .30. 1854). 
 
 (2) Scutari and its Hospitals. By the Hon. and 
 Rev. Sydney Godolphin Osborne. London : Dickin- 
 son Brothers, 1855. 
 
 75
 
 (3) Eastern Hospitals aud English Nurses,; the 
 Narrative of Twelve Months' Experience in the Hos- 
 pitals of Ivoulahi and Scutari. By a I^ady Volunteer. 
 2 vols. 1.S5G; 3rd edition in one vol., 1857. 
 
 The author, Miss Fanny M. Taylor, v^^as a member 
 of the secfond party of nurses, which went out with 
 Miss Stanley. 
 
 (4) The Nightingale Fund. Report of Proceedings 
 at a Public Meeting held in London, on Nov. 29, 1855. 
 Offices of the Nightingale Fund, 5 Parliament Street. 
 Pamphlet, pp. 30+16+24. 
 
 (5) The Prophecy of Ada. late Countess f Love- 
 lace, on her friend Miss Florence Nightingale. Writ- 
 ten in the year 1851. Music composed by W. H. 
 Moutgomonery. London : G. Emei-j' and Co. (no date). 
 
 (6) Pincoffs. Experiences of a Civilian in Eastern 
 Military Hospitals. By Peter Pincoffs. M. !>., late 
 Civil Physician to the Scutari Hospitals. William 
 and Norgate. Chapter VII. 
 
 (7) Soyer's Culinary Campaign: being Historical 
 Reminiscences of the Late War. By Alexis Soyer. 
 London : G. Routledge. 1857. 
 
 (8) "What Florence Nightingale has done and is 
 doing." St. James Magazine, April. 1861. 
 
 (9) Experiences of an English Sister lof Mercy. 
 By Margaret Goodman. Smith, Elder and Co., 1862. 
 
 (10) A Trip to Constantinople, and Miss Nightin- 
 gale at Scutari Hospital. By L. Dunne. London : 
 J. Shepherd, 1862. 
 
 (11) Constantinoph' during the Crimean War. By 
 Lady Hornby. With Illustrations in Chromo-Litho- 
 graphy. London : Bentley, 1863. 
 
 12) A Book of Golden Deeds. By Charlotte M. 
 Tonge. MacMillan, 1864. 
 
 (13) A Woman's Example, and a Nation's Work: 
 A Tribute to Florence Nightingale. London : Wil- 
 liam Ridgway, 1864. 
 
 (14) Florence Nightingale. A Lecture delivered in 
 the Theatre of the Medical College. November 9, 
 1865. By Major G. B. Malleson. Calcutta, 1865. 
 
 (15) Thomas Grant, First (Roman Caiholic) 
 Bishop of Southwark. By (Jrace Ramsay (pseudonym 
 of Kathleen O'Meara). Smith, Elder and Co.. 1874. 
 
 (16) Life of the Prince Consort. By Sir Theodore 
 Martin. 5 vols. Smith. Elder and Co. See Vol. III. 
 
 (17) The Invasion of the Crimea. By A. W. King- 
 lake. Vol. VI. "Tlie Winter Troubles." Blackwood 
 and Sons. 1880. 
 
 76
 
 (18) Narrative of Personal Experiences and Im- 
 pression during a Residence on the Bosphorus 
 throughout the Crimean War. By Lady Alicia 
 Blackwood. London : Hatchard, 1881. 
 
 (19) Life and Work of the 7th Earl of Shaftesbury. 
 By Edwin Hodder. 3 Vols. (1886). popular edition 
 I Vol. 1887. See pp. 503, 505, 581. 
 
 (20) Letters and Recollections of Julius and Mary 
 Mohl. By M. C. M. Simpson. Kegan Paul and Oo., 
 1887. 
 
 (21) Das Rote Krcuz, No. 23. 1895. Published at 
 Berne. 
 
 (22) The Story of the Highland Brigade in the 
 Crimea. Founded on letters written 1854-56 by Lieut. 
 •Colonel Anthony Stirling. Remington and Co., 1895. 
 
 (23) Life and Letters of Benjamin Jowett. By 
 Evelyn Abbott, and Lewis Campbell. 2 vols. John 
 Murray, 1897. 
 
 (24) Reminiscences: 1819-1899. By Julia Ward 
 Howe. 
 
 (25) Memories of the Crimea. By Sister Mary 
 Aloysius (Doyle). London: Burns and Gates, 1904. 
 
 (26) Emma Darwin. Wife of Charles Darwin: A 
 Century of Family Letters. By her daughter, H. E. 
 Litchfield. 2 voLs. Privately printed. 1904. 
 
 (27) The Life of Florence Nightingale. By Sarah 
 A. Tooley. London: S. H. Bousfield and Co., 1904. 
 
 (2S) William Rathbone : a Memoir. By Eleanor 
 F. Rathbone. MacMillan. 1905. 
 
 (29)) Sidney Herbert. Lord Herbert of Lea. A 
 Memoir. By Lord Stanmore. 2 vols. .Tohn Murray. 
 1906. 
 
 (30) The History of Nursing. By M. Adelaide 
 Nutting and Lavinia L. Dix'k. 2 vols. G. P. Put- 
 nam's Sons, 1907. 
 
 (31) The Letters of Queen Victoria. 1837-1861. 
 Edited by A. C. Benson and Viscount Esher. 3 vols. 
 John Murra.v. 
 
 (32) St. John's House. A Brief Record of Sixty 
 Years' Work. 1848-1908. 12 Queen Square. Blooms- 
 bury, London. W. C. A pamphlet. 
 
 (33) Florence Nightingale: a Force in Medicine. 
 Address at the Graduating Exercises of the Nurses' 
 Training School of the Johns Hopkins Hospital, Mav 
 19. 1910. By Henry M. Hurd. M. D.. Baltimore. 1910. 
 
 (34) The Letters of John Stuart Mill. Edited by 
 Tlugh S. R. Elliot. 2 vols. Longmans and Co.. 1910.
 
 (35) "Some Personal Recollections of Miss Flor- 
 ence Nightingale" (with a series of letters from F. 
 N.) In the Nursing Mirror and Midwives' Joui'nal. 
 September 3, 1910, pp. 347-349. 
 
 (36) "Florence Nightingale. O. M., R. R. C." By 
 Major C. E. Pollock. Royal Army Medical Corps. 
 October, 1910. London : John Bale, Sons and 
 Danielsson. 
 
 (37) Eine Ueldin unter Helden (Florence Night- 
 ingale). Von J. Friz. Stuttgart, 1912. Verlag der 
 Evang. Gesellschaft. 
 
 (38) The Story of Florence Nightingale. By W^ 
 J. Wintle. London : Sunday School T^nion. 
 
 78