Volume I Part 17 (1/2)

Miss Nightingale's resentment was perfectly justified Her remonstrances to Mr Herbert were necessary His well-intentioned action was calculated to underravate her difficulties; and, in both of these ways, to i of the crisis which had burst upon her was, perhaps, in relation to the subordinates unfortunate Miss Stanley was accompanied by Dr Meyer, a one out (as Mrs Herbert wrote to Mrs Bracebridge) devoted to Miss Nightingale, ”saying he would be her footman, etc”[105]

”We picked out,” added Mrs Herbert plaintively, ”the two ht, would help Flo most,” and they returned sad and sore at their cold reception Miss Nightingale, acting on advice she received on the spot, asked then notes of their conversation with her;[106]

this rankled with theland Mrs Herbert, in reporting all this to Mrs Bracebridge (Jan

7, 1855), made the final reflection: ”Perhaps it is wholesome for us to be re to doubt” Mortals have to deal with entanglements as best they may on the spur of the h allowance for the difficulties hich Miss Nightingale was suddenly confronted, for the danger which Mr Herbert's dispatch of unsolicited reinforcements involved, and, therefore, for the i all the conditions defined in black and white

[105] See below, p 241

[106] It was Mr Bracebridge who took the notes of the interview

Her practical genius and good sense speedily triureement with the medical authorities, the number of feale weeded out soinal staff in favour of new-comers Others of them were sent to the hospitals at Balaclava (p

254); and others to those at Koulali (p 174) Miss Stanley, whose intention it had been to return to England as soon as she had deposited her party, ree at the latter place, not ad to Miss Nightingale's ideas,[107] but rendering aid to the afflicted of which her brother, the Dean, has left us so charhtingale made some criticisms in an official letter to the War Office, May 1, 1855; printed at pp 389, 390 of the paraphy B And in another letter (March 5) she begged Lord Panmure to relieve her of responsibility for the hospitals at Koulali

[108] In an appendix to the _second_ edition (1880) of his _Memorials of Edward and Catherine Stanley_

In the end, then, the scope of Miss Nightingale's experinificance of the episode is to be found in the emphasis which it throws upon the novelty and difficulties of Miss Nightingale's enterprise In these days, nurses, trained and distinctively attired, are sounder the Red Cross are so normal a feature of war, and Territorial nurses, smartly uniformed, are so faination is required to realize the conditions which existed sixty years ago We remember that a staff of nearly 800 female nurses was maintained for service in the South African War, and may be tempted to smile at the question between 20 and 40, or 40 and 90 for the Criale who showed the way, and the way of the pioneer is rough No one who reads this volu in self-confidence; yet so conscious was she of the difficulties that in this instance she under-rated her power, and was anxious to keep the experiinal idea had been to limit the number of female nurses to 20, but at various dates after Miss Stanley's arrival she sent home for more nurses, and, before the as over, she had had control of 125

III

Miss Nightingale's reluctance to assume the superintendence of additional nurses will be the more readily understood e pass to the e

”Having understood,” she wrote to Lord Stratford de Redcliffe (Nov

7), ”that Your Excellency has the power of drawing upon Govern to state that there is at present a great deficiency of linen a the men in the Hospitals until the Government Stores can arrive and be appropriated to theht be applied to such a temporary purpose, and would never be _de trop_ Also a few Aht prepare delicate food for the worst cases, who require to be fed every two or three hours, which is of course impossible for the Medical Officers and Orderlies to attend to; estion to the Aale's arrival, serves to introduce two ht to the condition of things at Scutari

Efficient nursing requires, she well knew, cleanliness and delicately cooked food She set herself with characteristic energy to supply these necessities She found ”not a basin, nor a towel, nor a bit of soap, nor a broo brushes ”The first ihtingale's arrival--greater cleanliness and greater order I recollect one of the first things she askedfor washi+ng the floors, for which no ale had foreseen that washi+ng would be one of the first things necessary During the voyage out, as the shi+p was approaching Constantinople, one of the party went up to her and said earnestly, ”Oh, Miss Nightingale, e land, don't let there be any red-tape delays, let us get straight to nursing the poor fellows!” ”The strongest will be wanted at the wash-tub,” was the reply Until Miss Nightingale arrived, the nu a month was six[110] Up to the date of her arrival, the Purveyor-General had contracted for the washi+ng of the hospital bedding, and of the linen of the patients Simultaneously, however, with the arrival of the wounded from Inkerman, it was found that the contractor had broken down in the latter part of his contract

And even with regard to the forale discovered, in cold water She insisted upon hot; the more since it was found, as the Duke of Newcastle's commissioners reported, that many of the articles sent back fro in fact verly took a Turkish house, had boilers supplied in it by the Engineer's Office, eave the sick and wounded the comfort of clean linen All this was paid for partly out of her private funds and partly by the _Times_ fund

[109] _Roebuck Committee, Q_ 6140

[110] This fact, reported by the Roebuck Coainst the ht See Mr G M Trevelyan's _Life_ of him, 1913, p 242

Yet more important, perhaps, to the coale's ”Extra Diet Kitchens” When she ca was done in thirteen large coppers, situated at one end of the vast building The patients'

beds extended over a space of fro, of course, both wards and corridors); it took three or four hours to serve the ordinary dinners, and there were no facilities whatever for preparing delicacies between tiale had remedied this defect She opened two ”extra diet kitchens” in different parts of the building, and had three supplementary boilers fixed on one of the staircases for the preparation of arrowroot and the like As explainedwas supplied except in accordance with medical directions; and she met the doctors' requisitions out of her private stores only when the government stores failed ”It is obvious,” she explained, ”that Miss Nightingale would have shi+elded herself fro the adherence of the medical officers, to the strict precedents of Military Hospital Regulations, according to which the materials for the Extra Diets would have been sent in to her by the purveyor without requisition, in the same manner as is practised in the case of the ordinary diets; but she felt that in doing so she wouldthe object she was sent to carry out, for in the majority of cases the purveyor had either no supply, or a supply of a very indifferent quality of the articles required”[111] It is safe to say that ale of the good housewife's care to the kitchen of the hospitals The woristle and meat in the men's dinner, and she wanted to have the meat issued froet all bone, another all gristle, and another all meat But on this point she was beaten The Inspector-General inforulation of the Service” to ”bone the meat”!! The notes of exclamation are hers[112] In the culinary department an invaluable volunteer arrived in 1855 in the person of Alexis Soyer, once famous as the _chef_ of the Reform Club, and still alive as M Mirobolant in Thackeray's _Pendennis_ M Soyer rearranged and partly superseded Miss Nightingale's kitchens at Scutari We shall ain e accompany her to the Crimea

[111] _Statement_, p 26 _n_

[112] Letter to Mr Herbert, Feb 5, 1855

Miss Nightingale was not long at Scutari without being touched by the pitiable condition of the woiale deputed the care of thee, ith her husband, collected and ad assistance to the wives, wo-in Hospital was organized; and Miss Nightingale found e as aforesaid, and inup old linen into various hospital requisites Here, too, helpful volunteers presently arrived The Rev Dr and Lady Alicia Blackere o out to Scutari and see if they could be of use Dr Blackwood asked and obtained an appointment as a military chaplain; and, on their arrival, Lady Alicia went straight to Miss Nightingale and asked what she could do to help:--

”The reply she gave me,” wrote Lady Alicia, ”or rather the question she put me in reply, after a few seconds of silence, with a peculiar expression of countenance, made an indelible impression