Volume I Part 37 (1/2)

[324] _Hospitals and Sisterhoods_ London, John Murray, 1854 (2nd ed, 1855) Anonymous, but known to be the work of Miss Mary Stanley

[325] ”Report on the Nursing Arrangements of the London Hospitals” (at the time and twenty years before) in the _British Medical Journal_, Feb 28, 1874

[326] _St John's House: a Record_, p 10

[327] See his Address to the Abernethian Society in 1885 given in his _Me to Hospital Nurses Also Observations on Training Establishments for Hospitals_, 1857, pp 11, 16

Froe which will clearly explain wherein Miss Nightingale's work as the founder ofconsisted She was not entirely alone, nor was she in point of time the first, in the field; and there were exceptional cases to which the following stateer scale, and on a scale and in a foreneral ienerally, we ale appeared on the scene, nursing was, and was regarded as, a menial occupation which did not attract women of character; that it was ill-paid and little respected; that no high standard of efficiency was expected; and that no training was organized: the woe in the wards They were, as the correspondent of the _Times_ said, ” to circumstances or temperament, mostly attentive, and rarely unkind”; but, with very few exceptions, they were untrained ”A poor woman is left a ith two or three children What is she to do? She would starve on needlework; she is unfit for do, and has no ets a recoed as a Hospital Nurse”

The change which has coly illustrated in the Census In 1861 there were 27,618 nurses ”in hospitals, or nurses not apparently domestic servants,” and they were enumerated, in the tables of Occupations of the People, under the head of ”Domestic” In 1901 there were 64,214 nurses, and they were enuale was the founder ofbecause she made public opinion perceive, and act upon the perception, that nursing was an art, and must be raised to the status of a trained profession That was the essence of the her social strata, the better pay, were only results

III

The reat ere three

She brought to bear upon it the force, successively, of her Example, her Precept, and her Practice The first two of these aspects of her ill be considered in the remainder of the present chapter; the third is the subject of the next chapter

No woman, I suppose, as not canonized or who had not worn (or been deprived of) a crown, has ever excited a her sex so much passionate and affectionate adale I have tried in an earlier chapter, entitled ”The Popular Heroine,” to describe the effect which her work in the Criet first-hand irandreat-aunts It is they who can help us best to so in the Crihout the land, of the intensity of sympathetic admiration which went out towards her, of the impulse towards a fuller and worthier life which proceeded from her example But old letters are of some assistance too From a packet of family letters here is one, from an aunt to a niece: ”_April_ 15, 1857 I fear froale's life is approaching an end I have been deeply impressed by her life these last few days, which in respect of ard of tiiven her which has cost her her life to fulfil”[329] In how ale's exahts! A lady who had attained high distinction as a Nightingale nurse was asked after Miss Nightingale's death to record her recollections: ”My first thoughts of Miss Nightingale date back to that winter of frozen rivers, when children, catching up the ru _Sebastopol's taken_; or danced, listening around the old weaver's ho had coht, and read aloud to her husband what 'Lord Raiglan' was doing and saying; or later, in the hour before bed-time, sat at their father's feet while he told of the frozen trenches, of the 'dreary corridors of pain,' and of that ' a nation's distress; or perhaps later still in sleep, drea Russians, stealing the golden crown froale! Such experiences left indelibly ientle and heroic figure of Miss Nightingale” Often, no doubt, the i, and the broken purpose wasted in air

And often, too, the iue, and resulted in no definite action; yet not on that account, perhaps, to be cast aside as valueless

”I have a belief of e Eliot's characters, ”and it coood, even e don't quite knohat it is, and cannot do ould, we are part of the divine power against evil” But often the force of Florence Nightingale's exa those whom it influenced in this as Luise, the Grand duchess of Baden, who in 1859 founded a Ladies' Society in Baden for the training of nurses She had never seen Miss Nightingale, but a letter filled the Grand duchess with enthusiastic gratitude ”I felt,” she wrote (Sept 1861), ”that both joy and strength had come to me from your dear letter I may try indeed to thank you for it, but I shall never succeed in expressing how deeply and how highly I felt your kindness If there is any progress in the work I have sosupport I owe it” Those who saw Miss Nightingale, and ere sympathetic, felt thrilled in her presence ”She is so far htful in herself,” wrote Clara Novello, ”than in one's iale's personal influence was an inspiration Miss Mary Jones, of King's College Hospital, addressed her as ”My beloved Friend and Mistress” ”I value your nosegay too much to part with any one flower even” ”I look on a visit to you as reatest pleasure” But those who never saw Miss Nightingale, nor even heard from her, felt the force of her example In as publicly known of her career, there was, as it were, a call and a challenge to wo, who had forsaken all to be a nurse She sought to raise nursing to the rank of a High Art She had already in some measure done it by her example

[329] _A Century of Family Letters_, vol ii p 174

IV

In every walk of life, however, there are those who seek the palale had seen already in the Crimeato nurse the sick, but into whose heads it had never entered that nursing required special gifts and careful training Exaale's precepts upon the Art of Nursing were first given to the world in 1859-60 Her _Notes on Nursing_--the best known, and in some ways the best, of her books--was published in Decenized by the leaders in medical and sanitary science as a work of first-rate importance; as one of those rare books to which, within their range, the terhtly be applied ”I aet, ”how much I have learnt from the _Notes_, more, I think, than from any other book of the sahted with them,” wrote Sir James Clark ”They will dothat has ever been written” ”This,” wrote Harriet Martineau, ”is a work of genius if ever I saw one; and it will operate accordingly It is so real and so intense, that it will, I doubt not, create an Order of Nurses before it has finished its work” This was a true prediction Miss Nightingale was the founder of a New Model, and the _Notes on Nursing_ was its gospel

The anticipations of her friends that the _Notes_ would be popular were abundantly fulfilled Here was a book by Florence Nightingale on the very subject to which her fame was attached The effect produced upon reater because it came, as it were, as a kind of resurrection of the popular heroine The years which had passed since Miss Nightingale's return from the Crimea were, as , years of ceaseless activity; years during which she had done soreatest work But it must be remembered that all this was entirely unknown to htingale had retired into private life upon her return fro interval she cah, as in all that she wrote for the public eye, there was a conspicuous absence of self-advertiseh in the book to connect es with scenes and episodes of the Criiven to enthusiasm pointed out the connection: ”Hundreds of brave ale's self-imposed task was fulfilled, and this little book would be alh to explain her success Its tone seems to tell of the soleained Its language is grave, earnest, and i sad realities, and has been face to face with al”[330] Nor was it only the general tone of the book that was suggestive of the heroine of the Crimean War Here and there little touches of personal experience were introduced, in which every one could read the occasion between the lines When the author talked of her ”sadly large experience of death-beds,” the reader thought of the Lady with the Lamp at Scutari; and when in her chapter on ”Variety” she recalled ”the acute suffering produced fro able to see out of ,” the reader's ale at Balaclava ”I shall never forget,” she wrote, ”the rapture of fever patients over a bunch of bright-coloured flowers” She was thinking again of the Crimea The wild flowers there are ather the hich each took in turn[331]

[330] _Saturday Review_, Jan 21, 1860

[331] _Hornby_, p 306

The book was not cheap at first; the price was 5s But 15,000 copies were sold in a month, and a cheaper edition at 2s quickly followed It was read, sooner or later, by all sorts and conditions of people; in palaces, in cottages, in factories Queen Victoria ”thanked Miss Nightingale _very much_ for the book,” and sent in return a print of herself and the Prince Consort From the Grand duchess of Baden the book called forth an overflowing tribute ”I will not attempt to describe to you,” she wrote (Oct 9, 1860), ”with how es, so beautiful in their simplicity, so admirable in their true Christian spirit Rarely has a book made so deep an i the real adlish lady who has devoted so iven to all her sisters an exaotten” With further expressions of personal admiration, the Grand duchess added a very just characterization of the book: ”The gentle feelings of the woman are joined to experience, reflexion, and science” Miss Nightingale was urged to prepare a popular sevenpenny edition, and this appeared early in 1861 with the title _Notes on Nursing for the Labouring Classes_, and with a new chapter called ”Minding Baby” ”And now, girls,” this chapter begins, ”I have a word for you You and I have all had a great deal to do with 'h 'baby' was not our own baby[332] And ould all of us do a great deal for baby, which ould not do for ourselves” ”Did I tell you,” wrote Miss Nightingale to Madame Mohl (May 7, 1861), ”what pro Baby_? A Peckha he could alwaysthem it was 'for baby's sake' And several opened their parents'

s at night (greatly to the indignation of the parents, I a-hills before the doors in consequence” In its cheap fore circulation Mr Chadwick interested hi

Benevolent persons distributed it gratuitously in villages and cities

Edition after edition was rapidly called for Aale's papers I find letters fro cases in which office clerks and factory hands, after reading the book, voted the s open

[332] ”The chapter on Minding the Baby,” wrote Mr Jowett (Aug 24, 1868), ”is excellent I particularly like the parenthesis ('though he's not our baby') in which a world of morality is contained”

The book was read, not only by all sorts and conditions of people at houes abroad It had instantly been reprinted in America It was translated into Gerale's old acquaintance, M

Guizot),[333] and into es If the book be out of print, it ought to be included in one of the cheaper series of the day It can never be out of date, and no one who has read it has ever found it dull