Volume I Part 33 (1/2)
The Barracks and Hospitals Iood deal when he cas were ventilated and ware was introduced or improved The water-supply was extended The kitchens were remodelled Gas was introduced in place of the couple of ”dips,” by the light of which it was impossible for theStructural improvements were made in many cases, and Mr
Herbert, so far as he could extract s which had been condemned by his Commission This policy was abandoned for enerations heard in consequence of sanitary scandals in barracks at Windsor and Dublin and elsewhere The General Report of the Barracks and Hospitals Commission, dated April 1861, was presented to Parliaale's friends, on reading it, referred to it as ”her book” They were not far wrong, forwith the proper principles of Hospital and Barrack Construction, was in large ale, in order to ensure that such principles should be better understood and carried out in the future, induced Mr Herbert to appoint a special Barracks Works Committee, ”to report as to measures to simplify and is, other than fortifications, are constructed, repaired, and ive a more direct responsibility to the persons employed in those duties” Of this committee Captain Galton was a ale for criticisestion[279] There are many causes to which the improved health of the Army in our own time may be attributed, but the chief of them has probably been the improvement of barrack accoale deserves to be held in grateful remembrance by the Army and by the nation
[279] For its appointment, see below, p 405; and for the successive Committees, etc, in connection with barracks, see the Index, Vol II (_under_ Barrack)
As a supplement to the improvements in barrack kitchens, Mr Herbert introduced a reforale had pressed upon Lord Panmure's attention[280]; he established a School of Practical Cookery at Aldershot, for the training of regi ale had been painfully impressed in the Crimea by the importance of this reform
[280] See above, p 331 The School of Cookery at Aldershot is mentioned in the _General Report_ of the Barracks Commission, 1861, p 114 _n_
The second Sub-Co the Army medical statistics This was one of the requirements of rational reforale in the East The emphasis which she laid upon this side of her experience, the persistence hich she pressed the matter, the statistical skill hich she showed the way to a better systest the most valuable of her services to the cause of Arestions of the Sub-Commission were carried out, the British Army Statistics became the best and most useful then obtainable in Europe[281]
[281] The Committee on Army Medical Statistics (Mr Herbert, Sir A
Tulloch, and Dr Farr) reported in June 1858, and its Report was printed in 1861 In the same year the _First Annual Statistical Report on the Health of the Army_ (issued in March) was printed; it was compiled by Dr T Graham Balfour, as appointed head of the statistical branch of the Army Medical Department
The third Sub-Coale's favourite ideas: the establishment of an Army Medical School There were here the most wearisome delays and obstructions,[282] and it was not until Mr Herbert hiive effect to his Sub-Commission's Report And even then, as soon as the Minister's personal oversight was averted, the War Office ”Subs”
set to work to defeat their chief Mr Herbert had appointed the staff in 1859, but it was not till September 1860 that the first students arrived at Fort Pitt, Chatham They promptly came to the conclusion ”that the School was a hoax” As well they s or instruments of any kind! The explanation, which may be read elsewhere,[283] is remarkable even in the annals of departmental muddles There was, apparently, no method known to the red-tape of the routine-ht have remained ehtingale secured the personal intervention of the Secretary of State
”There! At last!” wrote Mr Herbert to her, in forwarding the official order at the end of its long travels through departments and sub-departale's child, and she watched over its early stages with constant solicitude Mr Herbert had commissioned her, in consultation with Sir Jaulations She had the noiene she nominated Dr E A Parkes, whose acquaintance she had erate the services which the stireat sanitarian rendered to the cause of htingale in connection with the syllabus of his first course of lectures In every administrative difficulty the professors went to her for help The correspondence between her and Dr Aitken[284] is especially voluainst y included in the professoriate, and Dr Aitken was ultiale in s of the School He often asked her to ”give us another push” ”Kind thanks,” he wrote (March 1861) when a further hitch had arisen, ”for placing our train on the proper line” Her intervention at headquarters was necessary even to extract pay for the professors ”I have just received an inti 7, 1860), ”that Sir John Kirkland has been authorised to issue my pay; so I presume the numerous officials concerned have been able to satisfy each other that I am in existence The 'at once' in this instance is equal to six days--an activity I am inclined to believe is due to your exertions on Sunday” Sunday was the day of the week on which, if on no other, she always saw Mr Herbert Dr Aitken was sarcastic, and not without cause, about the Circumlocution Office; but it is possible that the fault was not always only on one side
Professors are said to be sometimes ”children” in matters of business; and on one tale of woe addressed to Miss Nightingale, the docket (in Dr
Sutherland's handwriting, but doubtless at her dictation) is this: ”I hope the present difficulty has been got over, but it will be well to bear in mind that the School is so nearly connected with the administrative part of the War Office, that all your future proceedings, whether by minute or otherwise, should be concise and practical” The School survived the perils of its infancy, and introduced aiene and practice to candidates for the Arale wrote, ”young men were sent to attend sick and wounded soldiers, who _perhaps_ had never dressed a serious wound, or never attended a bedside, except in thein the wake of some eminent lecturer, who _certainly_ had never been instructed in the h one of their most important functions was hereafter to be the prevention of disease in climates and under circu, and ale's services as the true founder of the School were publicly acknowledged at the tiery, told the students that it was she ”whose opinion, derived froacity in observation, exerted an especial influence in originating and establishi+ng this School”[285]
”In the Army Medical School just instituted,” wrote Sir Jaiene will forthis School we have to thank Miss Nightingale, who, had her long and persevering efforts effected no other improvement in the Army, would have conferred by this alone an inestimable boon upon the British soldier”[286]
[282] The story of them may be read in _Stanmore_, vol ii pp 364-8
[283] _Stanmore_, vol ii p 367
[284] Sir Williaist to a hted, 1887 He held the professorshi+p from 1860 till the year of his death
[285] _Introductory Address at Fort Pitt_, _Chathamore, p 7
[286] Introduction, p 20, to a new edition (1860) of Andrew Coement of Infancy_
The School was afterwards moved to Netley It is now in London, is one of the Medical Schools in the University, and is placed in convenient proximity to a military hospital The Tate Gallery, on the Es which are of peculiar interest to any one concerned in the life and work of Florence Nightingale To the east of the Gallery is the Royal Alexandra Hospital, a general military hospital for the London district It is built, of course, on the ”pavilion” plan, and in every other respect conforale's ideas of what a hospital should be--with ress of science has suggested since her day A co packed into five cases for service in the field, is likely to attract the special attention of a visitor But in connection with Miss Nightingale there was soical wards with the Commandant, the smart ”orderlies” (old style, now the trained men of the Army Medical Corps) stood at attention The Colonel entered into conversation with the Sergeant of a ward He aiting promotion until he had qualified in the hospital, under the Matron, Sisters, and Staff Nurses Promotion in the Corps is now dependent on an exa authorities Into how great a thing has the introduction of ferown, and how ironical are soht with it!
Originally the female nurses occupied the lowest place; sometimes they were little more than superior domestics, often they were amateurs, and their position was always a little nondescript Now they represent the hly-trained and professional element, and without a certificate from them no male hospital attendant can win full pro that struck ical wards, I inquired about the , ”and you would find little to see there,” said the Colonel, ”for the Army is so healthy in these days that there are few medical cases”[287]
[287] It should perhaps be explained that venereal cases are treated in a separate hospital
On the west of the Tate Gallery stands another, and a larger, pile of buildings These are occupied by the Royal Arh which every Army Medical Officer has now to pass both a preliraduate course Shortly before I visited the College, I had been reading the large ale's papers which contain her first suggestions for the foundation of the school, with her drafts for its rules and regulations; and which describe the struggles and difficulties of its huh the noble institution into which it has developed; equipped with large laboratories which are, I believe, a the best in the country, with smaller laboratories for private research; with a department for those ”cultures” which are said to have done so much to preserve the health of the Army in India[288]; with a spacious lecture-theatre, a fine library, a large museum; and with handsome mess-rooms for the comfort and convenience of studious youth The transition was like a transformation-scene in a pantoe would have rejoiced to see it Only one thing see There are portraits or other memorials of es In the entrance lobby there is a bust of Dr Thohtingale procured In the s-room there are portraits of the first professors whom she nominated I noticed no inal institution of the College was due--Sidney Herbert and Florence Nightingale
[288] This is a departhtingale She loathed and mocked at inoculation ”Oh, yes, I know,” she once said; ”they will give you s you like You pays your money, and you takes your choice”
The last of the four Sub-Co” Sub-Coned to it, and there was no branch of the reform bill which encountered more stubborn opposition from the permanent officials One of Mr Herbert's ale on the subject speaks of the ”gross ignorance, and darkness beyond all hope” of the principal obstructive, who e Some of the work of this Sub-Commission need not be detailed here It framed a new Army Medical Officers' Warrant (issued by General Peel in 1858), and reorganized the Army Medical Department (1859) These were useful steps at the time, but there have been so anizations since then that this part of the refors in any detail only to ancient history The case is different with the general work of the Wiping Sub-Commission Here also there have been new developed; but in substance, these have all been built upon the foundations laid in the years 1859-60 To Miss Nightingale primarily, and to her nition of a principle which may seem self-evident at the present time, but which was entirely novel in her day--the principle that the Army Medical Department should care for the soldier's _health_ as well as for his _sickness_ The Sub-Cohtingale and Mr
Herbert--drew up a Code for introducing the sanitary ele and Medical Officers and their relative duties regarding the soldier's health, and constituting the regi officer