Volume I Part 30 (1/2)
[253] _Ibid_ vol ii p 338
[254] _Panht for the pavilion was only an incident in Miss Nightingale's work during the latter part of 1856 and earlier part of 1857 Her main as preparation for the Royal Commission This involved heavy correspondence, ust 1857, she resided principally in London, at the Burlington Hotel; but in the spring she had spent some weeks, within easy distance of London, at Combe Hurst, the home of her uncle and aunt, Mr and Mrs Sah, in order to confer with Sir John McNeill She prepared for the Royal Coestion had been made at Balmoral in October 1856; but Lord Panmure, who seldom did to-day what could be put off till to-morrow, did not write his official instructions until February 1857
In asking her ”further assistance and advice,” he said: ”Your personal experience and observation, during the late War, must have furnished you withnot only to the medical care and treatment of the sick and wounded, but also to the sanatory requireenerally” She had, it will be observed, carried her point, that the Report was to be of general scope ”I now have the honour to ask you,” continued the letter, ”to favour me with the results of that experience, on matters of so much importance to Her Majesty's Army I need hardly add that, should you do so, they will meet with the most attentive consideration, and that I shall endeavour to further, so far as it lies in enerous viehich you entertain on this iale wrote in response to this request--entitled _Notes affecting the Health, Efficiency, and Hospital Administration of the British Army_--is, I suppose, the least known, but it is the most remarkable, of her works It is little known because it was never published As in the end she extracted a Royal Commission from Lord Panmure, and as the Commission was followed by practicalto the public The War Office itself did not print her Report, and thus it never becaenerally kno much of the Report of the subsequent Royal Commission, and how many of the administrative reforale But at her own expense she printed the _Notes_ for private circulation a influential people, and upon all who read it the work created, as well it lake describes it as ”a treasury of authentic state a coht about failure, whilst also showing the ht best hope to co for the health of its troops”[255]
Sir John McNeill, who read the proofs of the _Notes_ as they passed through the press, was iency of the reasoning ”Be assured,” he wrote, ”that the Report will detract nothing froreatly add to it, and make it very plain why you have been placed where you stand in the estimation of the country No other person could have written it” Of another batch of the proofs, he said: ”It flows on so naturally, it gives so clearly the ienuine expression of earnest conviction, it has so htened conversation on a subject which is thoroughly understood and appreciated, and so little the appearance of having been 'got up' or of pretension of any kind, literary or artistic, that you ought to be very cautious how you alter it in any respect that would at all detract from the unambitious and perfectly natural, but, at the saorous, enunciation of iain: ”It does not signify much what Lord Panmure thinks or proposes or objects to You have set up a Landmark which neither he nor any other ress has been h but small, and your ideas and plans will be pirated and claie them” When the book was finally printed, and a copy of the voluht the sao,” he wrote (Nov 18, 1858), ”I read a passage to one of thehi from When I had done he said, 'That is perfect, whose is that?' I bade hiland who could have done it I think I know the it home with confidence to any of them It may be some neriter' I said it was, and then I told hi, which you care little about But for the matter: after a very careful study of the whole, I am fully satisfied that it is a mine of facts and inferences which will furnish materials for every scheenerations No man or woman can henceforth pretend to deal with the subject withoutto thearded as a whole, 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 any siift to the Arether priceless”
[255] Vol vi p 367
[256] Perhaps Abraha, quoted below, p 408 The passage read out by Sir J McNeill may have been that cited above, p 242; or perhaps that cited on p 317
These estiiven respectively by the literary historian of the Crimean War and by the man of affairs who had probed most deeply into the Crimean muddle, will be confirale's _Notes_[257] The wide range of the book, and its reat variety of subjects, are as reeneral principles The key-note is struck in the Preface The question of Ar the health and efficiency of the Arh a rate ofthe ere the cause why so many healthy men came into Hospital at all Those who fell before Sebastopol by disease were above seven tie number fell from preventable causes; but the causes could only be prevented in the future by the adoption of new systems The bad health of the British Ar than was thethe Crimean War The only way to prevent a recurrence of such disasters was to i peace, and during peace to organize and maintain General Hospitals in practical efficiency The necessity of reorganization, and the application of sanitary science to the Arale never loses sight in any of the branches of her subject There is an Introductory Chapter giving the history of the health of the British arns, and the book then contains twenty sections The first six of these deal under different heads with the medical history of the Crianization of Regimental and General Hospitals The re, in succession, the Need of Sanitary Officials in connection with the Army; the Necessity of a Statistical Department; the Education, Employment and Proes; the Dieting and Cooking of the Ar and Canteens; Soldiers' Wives; the Construction of Army Hospitals; and the Mortality of Arives, after the estions There are also various Appendices, Supplerams and Illustrations The first volues, soes thus nuht The ust 1857, but it was not desirable that the Nightingale Report should forestall, even in private circulation, the publication of the Royal Commission's Report A final appendix to the latter Report contained a mass of official correspondence on the care of the sick and wounded during the Criale pounced upon this, and prefixed to several of her sections a classified abstract of the principal documents ”A masterly analysis,” wrote Sir John McNeill, when she sent him the proofs; ”it is conclusive, because it is quite fair, and nothing could be ale could not deny herself an ironical comment[258]; but the ed them, in deadly parallel, is more effective even than her sarcasm
[257] This opinion is supported by an estimate of the _Notes_ in a paper which ca to press ”This work (the _Notes_) constitutes in my opinion one of the anization and administration in time of war Had the conclusions which she reached been heeded in the Civil War in America or in the Boer War in South Africa, or in the Spanish-Aht have been saved” (_Hurd_, as cited in Bibliography B, No 47, p 76)
[258] See the passage quoted above, p 288
Lord Panale of February 1857 were afterwards supplemented by a request that she would submit a Confidential Report on ”The Introduction of Fe into Military Hospitals in Peace and in War” The request had an a sequel ”You directed gestions to yourself as to the organization of Fe in Army Hospitals The Director-General, Army Medical Department, directed, last week, the expulsion of all female nurses but two from the Woolwich Artillery Hospitals I have a little pencil composition, to be 'dedicated, with per from the Secretary of State to introduce nurses, and a simultaneous order from the Army Medical Board to turn them out I enclose a memorandum (merely tentative and experimental) as to the duties of nurses I cannot expect the Secretary of State to enter into the details Perhaps I may ask to hear his decision as to the ultimate steps to be taken”[259] The tentativethe second volume (pp 184) of the _Notes_ Its title--_Subsidiary Notes as to the Introduction of Fe into Military Hospitals in Peace and War_--hardly describes the scope of the volue ”I read the _Subsidiary Notes_ first,” wrote Mrs Gaskell (Dec
31, 1858) ”It was so interesting I could not leave it I finished it at one longbetween breakfast and dinner
I cannot tell you how much I like it, and for such numbers of reasons
First, because you know of a varnish which is as good or better than black-lead for grates[260] (only I wonder what it is) Next because of the little sentences of real deep wisdom which from their depth and true foundation may be real helps in every direction and to every person; and for the quiet continual devout references to God which make the book a holy one”
[259] _Panes, the Memorandum is also printed
[260] ”Even black-lead is unnecessary, as a varnish now obtainable looks better,” _Subsidiary Notes_, p 22
As the work of a single hand, and that the hand of a woale's _Notes on the British Ar _tour de force_ Only the reat power of brain and will, could have accoh Clough, then eave her some help, out of office hours, with the proofs; and her faithful Aunt Mai did so and correspondence But for theritten in her own hand, and not for one moment did she allow herself any relaxation Nor were the _Notes_ the only work of the same months She prepared also (with soe), and issued, in 1857, the masterly _Statement to Subscribers_ which has been quoted frequently in the foregoing Part of this Memoir ”Why do you do all this,” wrote Mr Herbert (Jan 16), ”with your own hands? I wish you could be turned into a cross-country squire like e Miss Nightingale enjoyed in the preparation of her _Notes_, which, however, added as greatly to her labour as to their effectiveness and authority Experts of er to help her There were in all branches of the public service broad-minded men who knew alike the needs and the difficulties of refornized in her an invaluable ally Just as in the East, reforale,” so now officials and officers--some openly, others with careful secrecy--approached her with hints and offers of assistance, or sometimes with petition that she would come and help them Thus Sir John Liddell, Director-General of the Navy Medical Departed her ”to take up the sailors,” and to ”introduce female nurses into naval hospitals” She inspected Haslar Hospital at his request (Jan 1857), and he consulted her on the plans for a Naval Hospital at Woolwich ”I return with many thanks,” he wrote (Feb 17), ”your very clever Report on the Construction of Hospitals [a section of her _Notes_], froely in both our new and old buildings; but as you have only allowedyour Report privately, I trust that when you see your notions carried out in our Hospitals you will not reproach iarist without conscience” Sir John in return supplied her with facts which she needed about naval stores, dietaries, and statistics He also escorted her on a visit of inspection to Chatham, a military, as well as a naval, station She was received on all sides with the utave her free access to everything Dr Andrew S wrath when he learnt that she had been prying into his do that he hadthat her visit had official sanction on theher, in fear and tre he had said and shown as strictly secret The main object of her inspection of Barracks and Hospitals was to collect data for her Report, but sometimes she was able to effect a stroke of reform by the way and at once She was invited to inspect Chelsea Military Hospital by Dr McLachlan, the Principal Medical Officer She went, marked many defects, and wrote to him on the subject He concurred in what she said, explained that ”refor froht be able to exercise ”a little pressure from without” The chairman of the Board was Mr Robert Lowe, at that time Vice-President of the Board of Trade and Payht an introduction to Mr Loho ”hadupon her” The sequel is told in a letter from Dr
McLachlan: ”If you have not already been lad to learn that all the really io have been conceded Mr
Lowe's perseverance carried the Treasury The men are to have flannel vests and drawers, knives, forks, spoons, plates, &c, &c” And Mr Lowe hiard to ”the iest,” that he was ”happy to believe that the flannel is a very great comfort to the poor old men” Many Criiven soale in an earlier chapter They probably did not know that they owed their hospital comforts at home to the same woman's touch that had tended the theseCivil Hospitals in London Many of thenition of her services during the war
Military officers also tendered their assistance ”Ask questions,” says a letter froale, ”until you arrive at what you want It is a pleasure to assist that excellent lady in her noble work”: ”I was quite charmed,”
wrote an officer fro with Miss Nightingale She is the le-minded and benevolent person I ever met, and is truly the wonder of her sex Do, pray, convey to her my desire to place my humble services and experience at her disposal whenever and however she may desire” Within the War Office itself, she had influential friends Sir Henry Storks was in frequent correspondence with her, and sent for her criticisulations Colonel Lefroy had, in accordance with her suggestion,[261] been instructed by Lord Panmure to draft a Schehtingale's notes on this Draft (Nov 1856) include suggestions which ht have coes that the Board of Exaests that the teachers in hospitals should not be doctors of eminence; ”a man with an eood men may be found to take the position of teachers at a moderate salary” She forestalled the idea of Ie, of which the War Office of to-day says much ”A most important part of this School,” she writes, would be to afford opportunities for study and comparison to Medical Officers from the Colonies Like Dr McLachlan at Chelsea, Colonel Lefroy at the War Office soale” He told her of a certain military hospital which was very much overcrowded The Principal Medical Officer had represented the case to Headquarters and demanded extra accoht lead to better things” Colonel Lefroy was helpful in another ale was a pioneer, as we have heard during the account of her work in the East, in devisingthe better e his intelligent recreation And this effort, co the Criland To the initiative and generosity of Florence Nightingale, the establish-rooms is due Her friend, Mr Sabin, who had been the principal chaplain at Scutari, was now stationed at Aldershot, and Miss Nightingale concertedthere the experiotiation, permission was obtained from the -roo-Room, H Canteen, Aldershot Caale The experiment was so e it She invoked the good offices of Colonel Lefroy, rote to her on August 19 as follows: ”A propitious moment offered itself yesterday, and I asked the Chief whether I was at liberty to accept the offer of 'a private person' to contribute to the amuse-roo probably a shrewd suspicion of the identity of the unknown, and gave leave I am now therefore quite at your service There will be no difficulty in findingany funds you will supply, and I have but one regret in the matter, viz that a duty so essential to the moral improvement of the soldier should be left to private benevolence I should like to print Milton's IXth Sonnet[263] on everything you give us” Miss Nightingale herself had no taste for publicity or praise She loved to do good by stealth, and most of her influence was exerted behind the scenes
[261] See above, p 330
[262] See above, p 281
[263] _To a Virtuous Young Lady_:--
Lady, that in the prime of earliest youth Wisely hast shunned the broad way and the green, And with those few art eminently seen That labour up the hill of heavenly Truth, The better part with Mary and with Ruth Chosen thou hast, etc etc