NIGHTINGALE, FLORENCE (182o-1910), hospital re former, younger daughter of William Edward Nightingale, of Embley Park, Hampshire, and Lea Hurst, Derbyshire, was born at Florence on May 12, 1820, and named after that city, but her childhood was spent in England, mainly in the country at one of her father's houses, but with periodical visits to London. Sid ney Herbert was a neighbour of the Nightingales in Hampshire, and both he and his wife were Florence's friends. She received a good classical and mathematical education at home under her father's guidance. She began to visit the hospitals in 1844, as she was not content merely to lead the ordinary social life of a girl of her class. In the winter of I849-5o she made a tour in Egypt with friends, travelling by way of Paris. On the journey she met two sisters of St. Vincent de Paul, who gave her introductions to their order in Alexandria, where she visited their schools and hos pital. From the sisters she learned the importance of formal dis cipline in hospital nursing. She then visited the Institute of Protes tant Deaconesses at Kaiserswerth, returning the next year, when she remained for four months to study the organization, and to undergo a regular course of training as a nurse. She then studied the London and Edinburgh hospitals, and in 1853 was in Paris, studying nursing organization there. On her return to England she became (Aug. 1853) superintendent of the Hospital for In valid Gentlewomen in Chandos street, London, which she moved to Harley street.
In the year 1854 England was stirred profoundly by the report of the sufferings of the sick and wounded in the Crimea. There was an utter absence of the commonest preparations to carry out the first and simplest demands in a place set apart to receive the sick and wounded of a large army. The condition of the large barrack-hospital at Scutari was abominable. A royal commission of enquiry was appointed, a patriotic fund opened, and money flowed in fast. To Florence Nightingale this proved the opportu nity for which she had systematically prepared herself. She wrote to her friend Sidney Herbert, secretary at war, and offered her services. Her letter crossed with one from him inviting her to proceed to the Crimea. "My question simply is," he wrote, "would you listen to the request to go out and supervise the whole thing ? You would, of course, have plenary authority over all the nurses, and I think I could secure for you the fullest as sistance and co-operation from the medical staff, and you would algo have an unlimited power of drawing on the Government for whatever you think requisite for the success of your mission." She set out on Oct. 21 with a staff of 38 nurses. They reached Scutari on Nov. 4 in time to receive the Balaklava wounded. A day or two later these were joined by 600 from Inkerman. The
story of Florence Nightingale's labours in the huge insanitary barrack-hospital at Scutari became a legend in her lifetime, a legend diffused over the English-speaking world by Longfellow's verses on "Filomena." She gave herself, body and soul, to the work. She would stand for 20 hours at a stretch to see the wounded accommodated. She regularly took her place in the operation-room, to hearten the sufferers by her presence and sympathy, and at night she would make her solitary round of the wards, lamp in hand, stopping here and there to speak a kindly word to some patient. Soon she had i o,000 men under her charge, and the general superintendence of all the hospitals on the Bosporus. But the actual superintendence of the hospitals and of the nursing was only part, perhaps only the smaller part, of the work. She wrestled daily and successfully with the military authorities, especially with the commissariat, who naturally re garded her as a dangerous innovator, and indeed thwarted her efforts to break through the mazes of the red-tape methods of administration. In the end her firmness, and, at need, her anger won. The death-rate in the hospitals was 42% in Feb. 1855; in June it was 2%. She had secured by superhuman effort and the force of a dominating personality a measure of sanitation and decent conditions. Even her energy would hardly have triumphed but for the backing she received from Sidney Herbert. Things were going well enough in the summer to allow her to leave Scutari to visit the hospitals at Balaklava. There she caught Crimean fever and herself lay dangerously ill in hospital for 12 days. She refused to leave her post, and remained alternately at Balaklava and Scutari till Turkey was evacuated by the British in July 1856. A man-of-war was ordered to bring her home and London prepared to give her a triumphant reception ; but she re turned quietly in a French ship, crossed to England, and escaped to her country home before the news of her return could leak out. She visited Queen Victoria at Balmoral in September, and laid before the queen and her husband a plan of the urgent reforms needed in the military hospitals. The queen's comment on the visitor was : "Such a head ! I wish we had her at the War Office." The experiences of the terrible months in the Crimea per manently affected Florence Nightingale's health, but the quiet life she afterwards led was a busy one. Blue Books and statistics were her daily food ; she was always ready to confute the War Office from their own records. With the £50,000 raised in rec ognition of her services she founded the Nightingale Home for training nurses at St. Thomas's hospital. She watched over the growth of the new institution and each year addressed the nurses.