Volume I Part 30 (2/2)

Statisticians, sanitary engineers, architects, and other experts were all in correspondence or personal co the preparation of her Report Dr William Farr, the first authority on the former subject, was at ith her in January and February 1857 upon comparisons of the ive reatest pleasure,” he wrote, ”to render you any assistance I can in pro the health of the Army We shall ask your assistance in return in the atte made to improve the health of the civil population It is in the House and the Home that sound principles ork most salutarily” Later chapters will sho readily Miss Nightingale lent assistance in that field When she had finished the statistical section of her Report, she sent the proofs with her illustrative diagra to alter ”This _speech_,” he wrote, ”is the best that ever ritten on Diagrams or on the Army I can only express my Opinion briefly in 'Demosthenes himself with the facts before him could not have written or thundered better' The details appear to rams for the clearness hich they explained theraphic method of statistical presentation In every branch of her inquiry she was equally thorough; consulting the best authorities, collecting the essential facts She was in communication with Sir Robert Rawlinson and Sir Edwin Chadwick, and with Sir John Jebb, the architect of model prisons She collected plans of all the best hospitals and infirmaries in Great Britain and on the Continent She consulted Professor Christison on dietetics, and procured dietaries froeons whom she had met in the East, and with Ar which felloorkers had for Miss Nightingale appears characteristically in a note from Sir Robert Rawlinson to her aunt (1858) ”To have earned the good word of Miss N isI trust I may deserve a continuance of it I learn with sorrow that her health is so doubtful, but I have a full and abiding faith in the providence of God She has sown seed that will give a full harvest, and mankind will be better for her practical labours to the end of tieed in conformity with her humane rules One man in the army will be more useful than two formerly, and reason will preside over comfort and health So far as my weak means extend I will strive to work in the same field, and do that which in me lies to embody the lessons I have received” ”It is very pretty,” wrote her sister to Madame Mohl (May 2, '57), ”to see these wise old e as well as of her disinterestedness, and looking up at her with such a mixture of reverence and tenderness, of desire that she should not overwork herself, and of desire that she should do the hich she alone can do so well” ”You cannot think what it is,” wrote her sister to another friend, ”to watch a great reat work To see each ereat plans for reforive a fresh impetus of power to overcoaame of chess, whereof the paere men and the result the lives of thousands); how she collects the honey out of each man's information and binds it up into the whole that is to carry on the work” Miss Nightingale's _Notes_ were her oork in a peculiar degree and, as Sir John McNeill said, no one else could have done it But it is also true that the book collects froht at the time on the subjects hich it deals

VI

Miss Nightingale's own Report was -delayed Royal Commission on the same subject was appointed The iale had at last ”brought the Bison to bay” On April 26 she received the welcoton Hotel on the following day with the Official Draft of the Instructions for the Coested a few alterations, and these were accepted, and the docuale kept a copy of the manuscript, and sent it to her friend, Dr Graham Balfour, the secretary of the Commission ”Every one of the members of the Commission,” she explained to hiainst Dr Andrew Sard to the Instructions, ”You will see curious traces of the struggle to exclude and to include all reforress of the MS I think I a Pan--a petty kind of warfare, very unpleasant”

It throws an interesting side-light on the relation of Ministers to their subordinates to know, as appears froale's papers, that Lord Panmure was careful to have the docu them to Dr Smith To those who have delved into the history of the Criht than the long ascendancy of Dr Smith Perhaps no one was to blame, but only the system; but if any individuals were to blame for the medical defects, then surely the Medical Director-General ale a very long and elaborate Memorandum on her _Notes_ He admired the skill hich she marshalled the facts; but maintained that the true conclusion to be drawn from them was not that radical refor Dr Shtingale differed from the latter proposition But in fact Dr Smith was decorated, and when the as over he was allowed for many months to obstruct the course of reform The explanation, however, is simple The permanent head of a Department is a master of its detail, and if he be a ives him an ascendancy over his political chief If the Minister be indolent, or incapable of detail, or for any other reason disposed to the line of least resistance, he becomes as clay in the hands of his perenerals to particulars

So Lord Pane of this affair, took the precaution of barring out details Dr Smith, as a pertinacious man, had, I dare say, many criticisms to offer when the Instructions for the Coeneral and a conclusive answer What the Queen had signedthe Commission, was in very wide and coues set to ithout a day's delay Six months had elapsed between his acceptance of the Chairmanshi+p and the issue of the Royal Warrant The Report of the Commission was prepared in precisely three months To appreciate fully the industry which such a result involved, one must have looked into the mountainous mass of detail which the Commission accuh for the unre attention, the incessant hard hich Mr Herbert, as Chairman, threw into the task But even so, such speed in the preparation of the Commission's Report would have been iround had been already explored, and ale In all Royal Coust bodies, there is an Inner Cabinet, and sometimes an Innermost Cabinet as well In the present case there was an Innermost Cabinet of three, and one of the three was not a member of the Coale

There was no ale's work for so many years, and in so many different directions, as Dr John Sutherland He was recognized as one of the leading sanitarians of the day He had been an Inspector under the first Board of Health (1848), and had been employed by the Government in many special inquiries As head of the Sanitary Commission sent to the Criale's acquaintance, and froues He served on almost every Commission, Sub-Co to do If he was not nominated in the first list, she always insisted on his inclusion He sometimes exasperated her, as we shall hear in later chapters, but they worked together in constant comradeshi+p He was, as it were, her Chief-of-the-Staff; and also in large measure her Private Secretary for official ale the Chairman of the Royal Coeneral tribute to her assistance (p 312) It is fully borne out by the evidence contained in her papers

Throughout the proceedings of the Coale was in daily communication--personal, or by letter--with Mr Herbert or Dr

Sutherland, or with both I have before me, of this date, fifty letters fro task-master ”My dear Lady,” wrote Dr Sutherland one Friday (May 22), ”do not be unreasonable I fear your sex isso I would have been with you yesterday, had I been able, but alas! s I have been at the Co to fear I was too ued and too stupid to see you afterwards, but I intend co to-morrow about 12 o'clock, and we can then prepare for the ca week There won't beto the Derby, except your humble servant and Alexander, who, for the sake of exaive evidence on both We shall oes on on both these days, and I hope to- operation you desiderate, and as you don't go to church you can coach Mr Herbert on Sunday I have now sent you a Roland for your Oliver, and am ever yours faithfully” Of the letters from Mr Herbert, written after the Commission was appointed, the first defines the position: ”We ree our course” A few other brief extracts will fill in the sketch ”I a occur to you?”

”I send you Hall's correspondence You know the matters treated with all the dates which I do not, and will see in them what I should not” He consults her about the order in which to call the witnesses, ”or we shall see one another” He asks her to look into a co marines and sailors respectively She secured on another subject sooods,” he writes ”Pray keep thee the Arun could be more formidable than this document; it is really almost unbelievable” ”I should very much like to have a Cabinet Council with you to-day Shall I come to you at 5 o'c, or would you come here?” And so forth, and so forth, almost daily But I can perhaps best convey an idea of the co-operation in terale was the solicitor who gave instructions in the case to Mr Herbert As each branch of the inquiry came up, she sent him a memorandum upon it; often, no doubt, a copy of her own Report on the saested the witnesses, and often saw theave their evidence, in order, as it were, to take their proof In the case of some important witnesses, she prepared the briefs for cross-examination, as well as examination In June, Sir John Hall, whom the reader will remember as Principal Medical Officer in the Crimea, was to be in the box ”I have been asked,” she wrote to Sir John McNeill (June 12), ”to request you to give us some hints as to his examination, founded upon what you saw of him when in your hands My own belief is that Hall is a much cleverer fellow than they take him for, almost as clever as Airey,[264] and that he will consult his reputation in like ive us very useful evidence, no thanks to hi series of proofs of his incredible apathy, beginning with the fatal letter approving of Scutari, Oct

'54,[265] continuing with all the negative errors of non-obtaining of Lime Juice, Fresh Bread, Quinine, etc, up to his _not_ denouncing the effects of salt er the old ood and him harm But ant to make the best out of him for our case Please help us I understand that Dr Smith says he was ht it would do harood turn'

Is this for us or against us?” Sir John McNeill thought ”for us,” and advised that Dr Hall should ”not be put too much on the defensive,” but should be led in examination ”to slip quietly into the current of reform as Dr A Smith seems from what you say to have done” Still, if he proved obdurate he must of course ”be put in a corner”; and so Sir John McNeill assisted the lady-solicitor to prepare posers for a possibly refractory witness It was difficult, however, to be refractory with Mr

Herbert ”He was a man of the quickest and most accurate perception,”

she wrote of him in later years, ”that I have ever known Also he was the ed the most sulky and the most recalcitrant of witnesses He never made an enemy or a quarrel in the Commission He used to say, 'There takes two to be a quarrel, and I won't be one'” Then, again, Miss Nightingale was always at Mr

Herbert's call to supply details,dates, and references Every one familiar with the courts kno even the ablest counsel will so his papers for a particular document, till a junior behind him or the solicitor in front of him cohtingale, though behind the scenes ”Sidney is again in despair for you,” wrote Mrs Herbert; ”can you come? You will say, _Bless_ thatorders in begging for you”

[264] Richard, Lord Airey, Quartermaster-General to Crimean Army, 1854-5, one of the officers vindicated by the Chelsea Board; Quarter-master-General, 1855-65

[265] Dr Hall had reported to Dr Smith from Scutari (Oct 20, 1854), with ”much satisfaction,” that ”the whole Hospital establish,” etc See _Notes_, p 52

A difficulty arose upon the question whether Miss Nightingale should or should not give evidence herself She was averse froly supported her In his paternal way he did not like the idea of her exposing herself to such a strain, and indeed her physical weakness at the tireat In the present day she would of course, in like circumstances, have been made a member of the Royal Co a woman as a witness caused soard for Mr Herbert's susceptibilities She could not tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth without going into the past, and such evidence ht seem to cast reflections on the conduct of her friend as Minister during the earlier part of the war Mr Herbert, however, brushed this point aside, and urged her to come and tell the whole truth Her friend Mr Stafford was yet more emphatic ”Let me entreat you,” he wrote (June 11), ”to reconsider your deterht to do all This is our last effort for the soldier No one can aid us so well as you, and you can aid us so well in no other manner; even if your opinions should offend some few individuals, the fault is theirs, not yours The absence of your naht of our Report, and will give rise to unfounded rumours; it will be said either that ere afraid of your evidence, and did not invite you to tender it, or that you estions, the responsibility of which you were reluctant to incur in public” There was obvious force in Mr Stafford's arguive evidence in the form of written answers to written questions Her evidence, which occupies thirty-three pages of the Blue-book, is in effect a condensed suiven to the Coent ”It may surprise many persons,”

wrote an arale's evidence that, added to feift of acute perception, but that, on all the points subical, and, if we may say so, masculine intellect, that may well shah their subjects as if they had by no means made up their minds on any one point--they would and they would not; and they seem almost to think that two parallel roads ood feeling, amiable motives that should never be trusted to in matters of duty When you have to encounter uncouth, hydra-headedis the best ale shows that she not only knows her subject, but feels it thoroughly There is, in all that she says, a clearness, a logical coherence, a pungency and abruptness, a ring as of true ether adreatest interest,” wrote a member of the Commission (Sir J R Martin) to her, ”your most conclusive evidence now in circulation for the perusal of the Coe of facts and circuhout their entire extent, must prove of the es to come”

[266] _The Arh, 1859 Reprinted froh Medical Journal_ The writer was Dr Combe, RA

VII

The Report of the Coust 1857, with ale ”A thousand thanks,” he wrote to her (Aug 5) ”The list of recoood I have noted one or two additions” A coale's Report with those at the end of the Royal Commission's Report sho closely the latter document followed the earlier The Report was not issued to the public until January 1858 The reason for the delay is intiale's life during the latter half of 1857 The salient feature of the Report was its adoption and confirures which she had first tabulated many months before ”It is of infinite importance to the success of all you have still to accomplish,” wrote Sir John McNeill (Nov 9) when she sent him a proof of Mr Herbert's Report, ”that the accuracy of your statements as to the condition of the Barracks has been established beyond question It deprives interested cavillers of all right to be listened to when they desire to question your other propositions” It was shown conclusively by the Royal Coale had said, the rate of mortality in the Army at home in time of peace was double that of the civil population A comparison of the civil and militaryIn St Pancras the civil rate was 22; the rate in the barracks of the 2nd Life Guards was 104 In Kensington the civil rate was 33; the rate in the Knightsbridge barracks was 175 Every one who knew the contents of the Report perceived that this was the point which would cause a sensation The Cri to fade into the past, especially in view of the Indian Mutiny; and reorganization of a department of the Army would never be likely to arrest popular attention But the case was different with facts and figures showing that the health of the Army, even when at holect There was to be a sitting of Parliament in December, and nasty questions would assuredly be asked unless so were done There was a masterful and importunate wo should be done

Without a ht of recess or relaxation, Miss Nightingale flung herself into a new can

CHAPTER III

ENFORCING A REPORT