Volume II Part 25 (1/2)
VI
The constitution of the Sanitary Boards in India proceeded with due regard to ”the periods of Indian cosale watched their for in words of encouragement, expostulation, or reminder, whenever and wherever an opportunity was offered or could be reat obstacle to sanitary progress aenerations it is still likely to lie, in the ies
Education was ht impression, but the force of passive resistance, combined with lack of funds, prevented the hope of any rapid or signal advance Recognition of these factors now led Miss Nightingale to concentrate her efforts upon Village Sanitation, and a sche the power of education with a financial expedient forns
Miss Nightingale had been watching with the closest attention the Boe Sanitation Bill, a measure first projected in 1887 She analysed and criticized it, and sent her views to Lord Cross at the India Office, and to Lord Lansdowne and Lord Reay in India Her main objection was to the exclusion froes, an exclusion which did not figure in the revised draft of 1889 She wrote letters for circulation in India to Native associations in explanation and support of Village Sanitation[231] There was soale's next concern was to give to it articulate expression in London The holding of an International Congress of Hygiene and Deraphy in the autulas Galton was Chairress, so that there was no difficulty in arranging for an Indian section Miss Nightingale then circularized the Native association in Boress, and papers be contributed by Indian gentlereatly in the Congress ”Sir Harry Verney,” she wrote to Sir Douglas Galton (Aug 1, 1891), ”renews his invitations to Claydon to the native Indian delegates, 'three or four at a ti for the other native gentlee this, as is entlemen I may hope to see them one by one, if I aates) Sir Williaby seereat work[232] Do you remember that it is 30 years to-ress was opened by the Prince of Wales (Aug 10), whose speech on the occasion for articles in the press People talked, he said, of ”preventable diseases”; but ”if preventable, why not prevented?” It was, however, in the Indian section that Miss Nightingale was most interested, and she used it to proe Sanitation Act was failing to produce the desired results because there were no funds definitely allocated to sanitation Sanitary education was h, in view of the poverty of Indian villages, to make it likely that _additional_ taxation would be borne
In these circu_ taxation (the village ”cesses”) be appropriated to sanitation as a first charge?
”Until the minimum of sanitation is coe has been appropriated to it, while typhoidal or choleraic disease is still prevalent, should not the claihtingale's case She had ait in short for las Galton, Sir George Birdwood, Sir William Guyer Hunter, Sir Willia those who signed it Miss Nightingale then forwarded the Me more fully into the case, to the Secretary of State She wrote at the same time to the Governor-General and to the Governor of Bombay Lord Cross received the communication very sympathetically, and forwarded it at once (April 1892) to the Governale's dispatch a years a for on the Proposals ale, relative to the Better Application of the Proceeds of Village Cesses to the purposes of Sanitation” The official view, though not unsyale's object, was opposed to her financial expedient; it was thought that other purposes, especially the improvement of roads, etc, had a claim prior to sanitation ”It seems clear,” wrote Sir William Wedderburn to her (July 7, 1893), ”that you have most effectively drawn attention to the subject The official replies are ebetween the lines I think they admit the justice of our contention, and have been impressed by your action” Perhaps this was to some extent the case
”You have most effectively drawn attention to the subject”; that was, perhaps, the ale rendered to the cause of Indian sanitation Certainly she was i successive Governors-General for reports of progress; her i the elbows of Local Governradual progress as was estion was sent in a dispatch to the Secretary of State (Mr Fowler) fro letters on her Memorandum from the several Local Governments The Governestion; but adht to be done, considered that ”sanitation in its sie to some extent a claim on Provincial revenues,” and it promised ”to press this claim upon Local Govern letter to Miss Nightingale fro her that Mr Fowler ”is disposed to accept the view taken by the Government of India,” expressed the belief ”that India will benefit by the renewed attention which your action has caused to be given to the ies in some of the replies from Local Governments, enclosed in the dispatch, which bear out this belief
[231] See Bibliography A, Nos 115, 118, 119, 122, 123
[232] Mr S Digby was acting as Hon Secretary to the Indian Section of the International Conference
Miss Nightingale, on her own part, was diligent in appeals to Indian gentlemen to bestir themselves She had an ally at this tihtly summary of ”Indian Affairs” in the _Times_, sos She had urged her friend to write a detailed description of the actual working of Indian administration, and this he did in 1892[233] The Preface to his book was a dedicatory letter to Miss Nightingale In it he says that the book ritten at her request, describes its scope, and thus concludes: ”Now that the work is done, to whoale--to you whose life has been a long devotion to the stricken ones of the earth--to you whose deep sy or of sickness are able to abate?” In her own pieces written at this date, Miss Nightingale preached ospel of Health Missionaries for Rural India[234] Soress made in this respect will be found in a later chapter (p 406) She believed in State action, but no less in Self-help, and this point of view is emphasized in a retrospect of her work for India which she wrote, or partly wrote, probably as hints for soes froed, may fitly close this account of her later Indian work
[233] _Bombay, 1885-1890: A Study in Indian Adraphy A, Nos 132, 135
[235] The document, unfortunately not complete, is in part typewritten (with a few pencilled notes in Miss Nightingale's hand) and in part in the handwriting of a lady who at this tihtingale saw in the Queen's Procla principle to fulfil Every Englishlishwoman interested in India were bound in duty and in honour to do their utmost to help British subjects to understand the principle and to practise the life
To this she has adhered through illness and overwork for thirty-one years First attracted to India by the vital necessity of health for 200 or 250 lect, she believed it to be a fact that since the world began, criminals have not destroyed more life and property than do epidemic diseases (the result of well-known insanitary conditions) every year in India The protection of life and property from preventable epidemics ranks next to protection from criminals, as a responsibility of Governher in i was to awaken the Government This was done by the Royal Commission upon the Sanitary State of the Arin of practical action for the vast native population But the difficulties were enormous You must have the people on your side And the people, alas, did not care You cannot give health to the people against their wills, as you can lock up people against their wills Iale saw the necessity of Sanitary Missionaries a the people--of sanitary manuals and primers in the schools ('Give me the--schools--of a country and I care not who makes its laws'); of sanitary publications of all kinds, for man, woman, and child The Sanitary Commissioner, in one instance at least,[236] has been a Sanitary Missionary, crying out, 'Bestir yourselves, gentle?' The people must be awakened, not to call on the Goddess of Epidemics, but to call upon the Sirkar to do its part, and also to bestir themselves to do theirs in the ale found in Local Government the only remedy; in Local Government cohtingale's interest in irrigation, land-tenure, usury, agriculture, and in all these entleale appeals She appeals to them also on the Sanitary point And first of all it is for them to influence their ladies Let them lead in their own families in doeneral sanitation in India as she does in England” Another passage gives incidentally an autobiographical suale has deeply syress which has now held three Sessions, in which its temperate support of political reforms has been no less remarkable for wisdoiven deliberately, _not_ for political, _but_ for social and adress”
[236] She refers no doubt to Dr Hewlett
VII
At the tiely concentrated upon village sanitation, she was no less busily eh in a different way, upon work of a like kind at home Her interest in local affairs at Claydon has already been touched upon, and this was much increased after the death of her sister in 1890 Lady Verney had been a sufferer forspirit In May 1890 she was in London, very ill, and was counting the hours to her reive up a Sunday in town--a day which Florence now kept sacred for her sister
On Sunday May 4 Lady Verney was carried into Florence's rooain On Monday Lady Verney was moved to Claydon, and there, a week later, on Florence's birthday, she died ”You contributed more than anyone,” wrote Sir Harry (May 15), ”to what enjoyreat as to hold intercourse with you You and I were the objects of her tender love, and her love for you was intense It was delightful to me to hear her speak of you, and to see her face, perhaps distorted with pain, look happy when she thought of you” Miss Nightingale at once went to Claydon, where she remained for several reatly upon his sister-in-law, and for the remainder of his life she devoted herself to him with constant solicitude He was never happy iffroale's letter on the top of hispile, and no h When he was in the country and she in London, he was alanting to run up to town for the day--to buy a neaistcoat, or to consult his solicitor: any excuse would serve so that he could see his sister-in-law in South Street They used to say at Claydon that there was a sure way of discovering whether Sir Harry found a new guest sympathetic or not: if he did, the conversation was invariably turned to Miss Nightingale Upon the death of her sister, Claydon becaerial thoroughness into play there She looked into Sir Harry's affairs, interested herself greatly in the estate, inquired into the conditions of surrounding village life, ht hoe sanitation was necessary to civilize England hardly less than India, and she saw that as in India, so in England, education encies She set herself towhere her lot now happened to be cast, in Buckinghamshi+re
The time was favourable to a new experiment County Councils had been established by the Act of 1888 In 1889 they were empowered to levy and expend money upon Technical Education By the Local Taxation Act of 1890 they received a windfall for the same purpose from as known as the ”Whisky Money” Funds were thus available, and the definition of ”technical” education ide Why should not some of it be used for education in the science of ”Health at Home”? Mr Frederick Verney was chairman of the Technical Education Coale, as he said, ”to inspire, advise, and guide,” the thing was done She was already, as we have heard, possessed by the idea of the district nurse as health missioner It now occurred to her to institute an order of health-missioners as such The Health Officer for the district (Dr De'Ath) was first employed to train ladies for the work by means of lectures and classes The instruction was practical as well as theoretical, for the doctor took his pupils with hie e syers An independent examination followed, and the ladies who passed it satisfactorily were, after a period of probation in practical work, granted certificates as Health Missioners, in which capacity soed by the Technical Education Coes The sche of 1892, was a sie bundles of documents attest, in much labour for two or three years She enlisted recruits; collected the best that was known and thought about simple sanitary instruction; considered syllabuses and examination papers; corresponded with other Technical Education Committees; wrote memoranda and letters on the subject[237] To the Women Workers' Conference, held at Leeds in Nove exhaustively with the whole subject of Rural Hygiene--a paper which is unhappily by no htingale was a pioneer, has branched out in many directions ”We want duly qualified Sanitary Inspectors,” she wrote, and she was delighted when she heard a few years later of the good work done by some women sanitary inspectors in the north Full qualification, practical training, she insisted upon; and then so else anted also Her last word to the Health Missioner was the same as to the Nurse ”The work that tells is the work of the skilful hand, directed by the cool head, and inspired by the loving heart”
[237] See Bibliography A, Nos 126, 133, 134
CHAPTER VIII
MR JOWETT AND OTHER FRIENDS
Let every dawn ofsun be to you as its close--then let every one of these short lives leave its sure record of so done for others--RUSKIN
The last chapter was largely concerned with Miss Nightingale's activity in public affairs and with acquaintanceshi+ps which she formed in connection with thehted,her acquaintance, had said to a friend that it was ”a great pleasure to ale” But she was many-sided, and even in her converse withood ”man of business” Much of her influence was due to the fact that so many of those who first saw her as a matter of affairs becaood man of business she added those of a richly syale's life and character has already been illustrated sufficiently in the case of her relations with Matrons, Superintendents, and Nurses It h, too, in the account of her official ith Sidney Herbert and other of her earlier allies But it was as marked in her later as in her earlier years, and in relation to the ht into touch In reading her collection of letters from various doctors and officials of all sorts, I have been struck e of atins on a formal note