MacTutor
Florence Nightingale
Times obituary
We deeply regret to state that Miss Florence Nightingale, O.M., the organizer of the Crimean War Nursing Service, died at her residence, 10 South Street, Park Lane, on Saturday after noon. She had been unwell about a week ago, but had recovered her usual cheerfulness on Friday. On Saturday morning, however, she became seriously ill and gradually sank until death occurred about 2 o'clock. The cause of death was heart failure. Two members of her family were present at the time.
Miss Nightingale, who had for some time been an invalid and had been under the constant ears of Sir Thomas Barlow, died in her last year. She celebrated her 90th birthday on May 12 last, and one of the first guests of the present King since coming to the throne King Edward died on May 6 - was to send her a telegram of congratulations. The message was worded as follows:
"On the occasion of your 90th birthday, I offer you my heartfelt congratulations, and trust that you are in good health. George R. & I."
The funeral will take place in the course of the next few days and will be of the quietest possible character in accordance with the strongly expressed wish of Miss Nightingale.
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Memoir.
In Miss Florence Nightingale there has passed away, one of the heroines of British history. The news of her death will be received today with feelings of profound regret throughout not merely the land of her birth, but in all countries where her name has been spoken among men.
Florence Nightingale was born on May 12, 1820, at Florence, from which city she took her name. She was the younger of the two daughters and co-heiresses of Fr William Shore Nightingale, of Embley Park, Hampshire, and Lea Hall, Durbyshire, was a descendant of the old Derbyshire family of Shore, and himself the owner of large estates and considerable wealth. Her mother was a daughter of William Smith, the friend of Wilberforce and his supporter in the House of Commons in the abolitionist and other movements. From Lea Hall the family removed, about 1826, to Lea Hurst, a house about a mile distant, and the one with which the name of Florence Nightingale has been more especially associated. Florence, who even in her young days was a child of extremely strong sympathies, quick apprehension, and excellent judgment, was carefully trained, acquiring, among other accomplishments, under the direction of her father, and knowledge of the classics, mathematics, and also of modern languages. But while applying herself to the culture of her mind, she was, at the same time, the consoler and benefactress of all the villagers to whom her kindly words might be of service, displaying even thus early in life that bent of her mind and disposition which afterwards spread her fame throughout the world.
Seeking wider experience than her position as a squire's daughter in a small Derbyshire village could give her, she visited all the hospitals in London, Dublin, and Edinburgh, many country hospitals, and some of the naval and military hospitals in England; all the hospitals in Paris, studying with the Sœurs de Charité; the Institute of Protestant Deaconesses at Kaisersworth, on the Rhine, where she was twice in training as a nurse; the hospitals at Berlin, and many others in Germany; while she also visited Lyons, Rome, Alexandria, Constantinople, and Brussels. On her return to Derbyshire, where she hoped to have the rest of which she stood in need after her travels, she was appealed to, in 1850, on behalf of the Home for Scottish Governesses, 90 Harley Street, London, which was lacking not only of proper support, but also of management. She responded to the appoal by herself taking over the entire control of the institution and devoting alike time, energy, and fortune to re-establishing it (with the help of Lady C. Canning, the original founder) on a sound basis. She also took an active interest in the ragged schools and other similar proper institutions in London. Altogether, something like ten years had been spent by her in preparing, unconsciously, for the great events of her life, and these came with the Russian War.
THE CRIMEAN WAR.
On September 20, 1854, the Battle of Alms was fought, and it is not too much to say that the accounts published in the columns of The Times from our correspondent, the late Dr. (afterwards Sir William Howard) Russell as to the condition of the sick and wounded sent a feeling of horror throughout the length and breadth of the land. There is no necessity to dwell here in detail on the harrowing stories he related. Suffice it to say that he showed how the commonest accessories of a hospital were wanting; how the sick appeared to be tended by the sick, and the dying by the dying; how, indeed, the manner in which the sick and wounded were being treated was "worthy only of the savages of Dahomey": and how, while our own medical system was "shamefully bad," that of the French was exceedingly good, and was, too, rendered still more efficient because of the sisters of charity who had followed the French troops in incredible numbers.
On October 12, 1854, a loading article appeared in The Times in which it was pointed out that while "we are sitting by our firesides devouring the morning paper in luxurious solitude these poor fellows are going through innumerable hardships"; and the article went on to suggest that the British public should submit to send them a few creature comforts. On the following day we published an extremely sympathetic letter from Sir Robert Peel, starting a fund with a check for £200 , and so generally and so liberally was his example followed that £781 was received by us within two days, £7,000 within seven days, and £11,614 by the end of the month, when the fund was closed. But, in the meantime, the terrible cry from the East had met with a response which was of even more effective service to the suffering soldiers than the thousands of pounds thus promptly and generously contributed.
On October 15, Miss Nightingale wrote to Mr. Sidney (afterwards Lord) Herbert, Secretary at War, offering to go to Seutari, and, as it happened, her own letter was crossed by Mr. Sidney Herbert. Medical stores, he said, had been sent out by the ton weight, but the deficiency of female nurses was undoubted. Lady Maria Forrester had proposed to go with or to send out trained nurses, but there is," Mr. Herbert went on to say, "only one person in England that I know of who would be capable of organizing and superintending such a scheme. . . . A number of sentimental and enthusiastic ladies turned loose in the hospital at Senteri would probably, after a few days, be mise à la porte by those whose business they would interrupt and whose authority they would dispute. My question simply is, Would you listen to the request to go out and supervise the whole thing?" Miss Nightingale, as we have said, had already answered this question, and preparations could thus be set on foot without a moment's delay. But, as showing how little she was known to fame at that time, we may mention curious fact that in The Times of October 19, 1854, there appeared the announcement "We are authorized to state that Mrs. (sic) Nightingale" had undertaken to organize a staff of female nurses, who would proceed with her to Scutari at the expense of the Government. Not, indeed, until several days had lapsed does it seem to have been realized that "Mrs." Nightingale was really "Miss" Nightingale, and even then the Examiner found it necessary to publish an article headed "Who is Miss Nightingale", setting forth who she really was, and bearing eloquent testimony to her accomplishments, her experience, and the nobility of her character.
Within a week, Miss Nightingale selected from hundreds of offers, received from all parts of the country, a staff of 38 nurses, including 14 Auglican sisters, ten Roman Catholic sisters of mercy, and three nurses selected by Lady Maria Forrester. It may be interesting to recall that among the ladies forming the gallant little band was Alina Erskine, daughter of the Dowager Lady Erskine, of Pwll-y-crochan, North Wales. Miss Nightingale and her nurses left London on October 21, passing through Boulogne on October 23 on their way to Marseilles; and a letter which appeared in The Times some days afterwards, written by a correspondent who had been staying at Boulogne, related how the arrival of the party there caused so much enthusiasm that the sturdy fisherwomen seized their bags and carried them to the hotel, refusing to accept the slightest gratuity; how the landlord of the hotel gave them dinner and told to order what they liked, adding that they would not be allowed to pay for anything; and how waiters and chambermaids were equally firm in refusing any acknowledgment for the attentions they pressed upon them.
ARRIVAL AT THE FRONT.
From Marseilles the party proceeded to Corsica, where they arrived on November 4, the eve of the Battle of Inkerman. They found there were two hospitals at Scutari, one of which, the Barrack Hospital, already contained 1,500 sick and wounded, and the other, the General Hospital, 800, making a total of 2,300; but on the 5th of November there arrived 500 more who had been wounded in the course of that day's fighting, so that there were close to 3,000 sufferers claiming the immediate attention of Miss Nightingale and her companions. In the best of circumstances the task which the nurses thus found before them would have been enormous; but the circumstances themselves were as bad as the imagination can conceive, if, indeed, imagination, unaided by foot, could call up so appalling a picture. Neglect, mismanagement, and disease had "united to render the scene one of unparalleled hideousness." The wounded, lying on beds placed on the pavement itself, were bereft of all comforts; there was a scarcity alike of food and medical aid. Fever and cholera were rampant, and even those who were only comparatively slightly wounded, and should have recovered with proper treatment, were dying from shear exhaustion brought about by lack of the nourishment they required.
Miss Nightingale, as "Lady-in-Chief," at once set to work to restore some order to the chaos that prevailed. Within ten days of her arrival, she had an impromptu kitchen fitted up, capable of supplying 800 men every day with well-cooked food, and a house near the Barrack Hospital was converted into a laundry, which was also sorely needed. In all this work, she was most cordially supported by Mr. MacDonald, the almoner of The Times Fund, the resources of which were, of course, freely placed at her disposal. But in other directions, Miss Nightingale had serious difficulties to encounter. The official regiment, which had sat as a curse over the whole condition of things, continued as active, or, rather, as inefficient, as over Miss Nightingale was at first scarcely tolerated by those who should have co-operated with her. She had, at times, the greatest possible difficulty in obtaining sufficient Government stores for the sick and wounded; for though, as Mr. Sidney Herbert had written, medical stores had been sent out by the ton weight, they were mostly rotting at Varua instead of having been forwarded to Scutari. On one occasion, when she was especially in need of some that had arrived, items that were not to be given out until they had been officially "inspected," she took upon herself to have the doors opened by force and to remove what her patients needed.
But her zeal, her devotion, and her perseverance would yield to no rebuff and to no difficulty. She went steadily and unwearyingly about her work with a judgment, a self-sacrifice, a courage, a tender sympathy, and withal a quiet and unobtrusive demeanour that won the hearts of all who were not prevented by official prejudices from appreciating the nobility of her work and character. Our poor fellow wrote home: "She would speak to one and nod and smile to many more; but she could not do it to all, you know. We lay there by hundreds; but we could kiss her shadow as it fell, and lay our heads on the pillow again, content."
Mr. MacDonald, too, wrote in February, 1855-
Wherever there is disease in its most dangerous form and the hand of the despoiler distressingly nigh. there is that incomparable woman sure to be asen. Her benignant presence is an influence for good comfort, even amid the struggles of expiring nature. She is a "ministering angel" without any exaggeration in there hospitals, and as her slender form glides quietly aloug Bach corridor, every poor fallow's face softens with gratitude at the sight of her. When all the medical officers bave retired for the night and silence and darkness havo settled down upon those miles of prostrate sick, aho may be observed alone, with a little lamp in her hand, making her solitary rounds. The popular instinct was not mistaken which, when she set out from England on her mission of mercy, hailed her as a heroine. I trust she may not earn her titlo to a still highor though sadder appellation. No one who has observed her fragile figure and delicate health can avoid misgivings lest those should fail. With the heart of a true woman, and the manners of a lady, accomplished and refined beyond most of her sox, she combines a surprising calmness of judgment and promptitude and decision of character.
It was also written of her:-
She has frequently been known to stand 20 hours on the arrival of fresh detachments of sick, apportioning quarters, distributing stores, directing the labours of her corps, assisting at at the painful operations where her presence might soothe or support, and spending hours over man dying of cholera or fever. Indeed, the more awful to every sense any particular case might be the more certainly might be seen her slight form bending over him, administering to his case by every means in her power, and seldom quitting his side till death released him.
CRITICISM AT HOME.
Meanwhile, the reports which Miss Nightingale made both to Lord Raglan, the Commander-in-Chief, and to the War Minister at home were of invaluable service in enabling them to put their finger on the weak spots of the administration. On the other hand, it is painful to recall the fact that while, in all these various ways, Miss Nightingale was doing such admirable work in the East, sectarian prejudices at home had led to unscrupulous attacks being made alike on her religious views and on her motives in going out. "It is melancholy to think," as Mrs. Herbert wrote to a lady correspondent, "that in Christian England no one can undertake anything without these most uncharitable and sectarian attacks. Miss Nightingale is a member of the Established Church of England, and what is called rather Low Church; but ever since she went to Scutari her religious opinions and character have been assailed on all points. It is a cruel return to make towards one to whom all England owes so much." Happily a check was put to this campaign of slander and uncharitableness by a letter written by Queen Victoria from Windsor Castle, dated December 6, 1854, to Mr. Sidney Herbert, asking that accounts received from Miss Nightingale as to the condition of the wounded should be forwarded to her, and saying:-
"I wish Miss Nightingale and the ladies would tell these poor noble wounded and sick men that no one takes a warmer interest, or feels more for their sufferings, or admires their courage and heroism more, than their Queen. Day and night she thinks of her beloved troops. So does the Prince. Beg Mrs. Herbert to communicate these same my words to those ladies, as I know that our sympathy is much valued by these noble fellows."
The eminently tactful indication conveyed in this letter of Her Majesty's complete confidence in Florence Nightingale did much not only towards silencing the inordinate critics at home, but also towards strengthening the position of the Lady-in-Chief in meeting the difficulties due to excessive officialism in the East.
GROWTH OF THE WORK.
In January 1855, Miss Nightingale's totally inadequate staff was increased by the arrival of Miss Stanley with 50 more nurses; and how greatly they were needed is shown by the fact that there were then 5,000 sick and wounded in the various hospitals on the Bosporus and the Dardanelles, 1,000 more being on their way down. By February there was a great increase in fever, which in the course of three or four weeks swept away seven surgeons, while eight more were ill, 21 wards in the Barrack Hospital being in the charge of a single medical attendant. Two of the nurses also died of fever. Miss Nightingale told subsequently how for the first seven months of her stay in the Crimea the mortality was at the rate of 60 percent per annum from disease alone, a rate inexcess, she added, of that which prevailed among the population of London during the Great Plague. By May, however, the position of affairs had so far improved at Scutari, thanks mainly to the untiring energies and devotion of Miss Nightingale, that she was able to proceed to Balaclava to inspect the hospitals there. Her work at Balaclava was interrupted by an attack of Crimea fever, and she was afterwards urged to return home; but she would go no further than Scutari, remaining there until her health had been re-established. Thereupon she again left for the Crimea, where she established a staff of nurses at some new camp hospitals put up on the heights above Balaclava, and took over the superintendence of the nursing department, herself living in a hut not far away. She also interested herself in organizing reading and recreation huts for the army of occupation, securing books and periodicals from sympathizen at home. Among the donors were Queen Victoria and the Duchess of Kent. Another institution she set up was a café at Inkerman, as a counter attraction to the ordinary canteens. Then she started classes, supported the lectures and schoolrooms which had been established by officers or clerks, and encouraged the men to write home to their families. Already at Scutari she had opened a money-order office of her own through which the soldiers could send home their pay. She thus set an example which the Government followed by establishing official money-order offices at Scutari, Balaclava, Constantinople, and elsewhere. Some 270,000 passed through these offices in the first six months of 1856.
THE END OF THE WAR.
Florence Nightingale remained in the Crimes until the final evacuation in July 1856, her last not before leaving being the erection of a memorial to the fallen soldiers on a mountain peak above Balaclava. The memorial consisted of a marble cross 20 feet high, bearing the inscription, in English and Russian:
LORD, HAVE MERCY UPON US.
GOSPODI POMILORI NASS
Calling at Scutari on her way home, Miss Nightingale left that place in a French vessel for Marseilles, declining the offer made by the British Government of a passage in a man-of-war, and reached Lea Hurst on August 8, 1856, having succeeded in avoiding any demonstration on the way.
Before returning to England, Florence Nightingale had received from Queen Victoria an autograph letter with a beautiful jewel, designed by Prince Albert; the Sultan had sent her a diamond bracelet and a fund for a national commemoration of her services had been started, the income from the proceeds, £45,400, being eventually devoted partly to the setting up at St. Thomas's Hospital of a training school for hospital and infirmary nurses and partly to the maintenance and instruction at King's College Hospital of midwifery nurses. For herself she would have neither published testimonial nor public welcome. She was honoured by an invitation to visit the Queen and Prince Consort at Balmoral in September, and addresses and gifts from working men and others were sent or presented privately to her. But though her fame was on everyone's lips, and her name has ever since been a household word among the peoples of the world, her life from the time of her return home was little better than that of a recluse and confirmed invalid. Her health, never robust, broke down under the strain of her arduous labors, and she spent most of her time on a couch, while in the closing years of her life she was entirely confined to bed.
LATER REFORM.
But, though her physical powers failed her, there was no falling off either in her mental strength or in her intense devotion to the cause of humanity. She was still the "Lody-in-Chief" in the organization of the various phases of nursing which, thanks to the example she had set and the new spirit with which she had imbued the civilized world, now began to establish themselves; she was the general adviser on nursing organization not only of our own but of foreign governments, and was consulted by British ministers and generals at the outbreak of each of our wars, great or small; she expanded important schemes of sanitary and other reforms, though compelled to leave others to carry them out, while at all times her experience and practical advice were at the command of those who needed them.
Almost the entire range of nursing seems to have been embraced by that revolution in which Florence Nightingale was the chief militant of bringing about. Following up the personal services she had already rendered in the East with regard to Army nursing, she prepared, at the request of the War Office, an exhaustive and confidential report on the working of the Army Medical Department in the Crimea as the precursor to complete reorganization at home; she was the means of inspiring more humane and more efficient treatment of the wounded in both the American Civil War and the Franco-German War; and it was the stirring record of her deeds that led to the founding of the Red Cross Society, now established in every civilized land. She was also almost ceaselessly consulted by the Indian Government on questions affecting the welfare of the Indian Army. On the outbreak of the Indian Mutiny she even offered to go out and organize a nursing staff for the troops in India. The state of her health did not warrant the acceptance of this offer; But no one can doubt that if campaigns are fought under more humane conditions today regarding the care of wounded soldiers, the result is very largely due to the example and also to the counsels of Florence Nightingale.
But advances no less striking are to be found in other branches of the nursing art, as well. With regard to general hospitals, the pronounced access of the nursing school established at St. Thomas's as a result of the Nightingale Fund led to the opening of similar schools elsewhere, so that today hospital nursing in general occupies a higher position in the country than it has ever done before, while this, in turn, advanced the whole range of private nursing in the country. Then, again, the system of district nursing, which is now in operation in almost every large population, has had an enormous influence, like in bringing disabled nurses within reach of sufferers outside the hospitals, and of still further raising the status of nursing as a profession "Missionary nurses," Florence Nightingale wrote, "are the end and arm of all our work. Hospitals are, after all, but an intermediate stage of civilization. While devoting my life to hospital work, I have always come to the conclusion that hospitals were not the best place for the sick poor except for severe surgical cases."
DISTRICT NURSES.
District nursing was really established in this country by the late Mr. William Rathbone, who, in compliance with the dying request of his first wife, started a single nurse in Liverpool in 1859 as an experiment. The demand for district nurses soon became so great that more were clearly necessary, and Mrs. Nightingale was consulted as to what should be done. She replied that all the nurses then in training at St. Thomas's were wanted for hospital work, and she recommended that a training school for nurses should be started in Liverpool. The suggestion was adopted, and in November 1861, on being consulted about the plans, she wrote to the chairman of the training school committee:
God bless you and be with you in the effort, for it is one which meets one of our greatest national wants. Nearly every nation is ahead of England in this matter—in providing for nursing the slick at home: and one of the chief uses of a hospital (though almost entirely neglected up to the present time) is this—to train nurses for nursing the sick at home.
By about 1663 there was a trained nurse at work among the poor in each of the 18 districts into which Liverpool had been divided for the purposes of the scheme. The example of Liverpool was quickly followed by Manchester, where a district nursing association was formed in 1864, the East London Nursing Society was established in 1869, and the Metropolitan and National Association followed in 1874. Florence Nightingale took a deep interest in the organization of the last-mentioned society, sending a long letter to The Times in which she expressed her gratification at the idea of nurses having a central home, set forth in considerable detail the nature and importance of the duties the district nurses were called upon to perform, and appealed strongly—and successfully—for donations towards the cost of a home. After these pioneer societies had been successfully started, many others followed; but the greatest development of all was afforded by Queen Victoria's Jubilee Institute for Nurses, the operations of which have been of the highest importance in spreading the movement throughout the United Kingdom. When, in December 1896, a meeting was held at Grosvenor House for the purpose of organizing and commemorating the Institute, a letter from Florence Nightingale was read in which she expressed her heartiest sympathy with the proposal.
Great and most beneficent changes, again, have followed the substitution in workhouse infirmaries of trained nurses for pauper women, to whose tender mercies the care of the sick in those institutions was formerly left. It was a "Nightingale probationer," the late Agnes Jones, and 12 of her fellow nurses from the Nightingale School at St. Thomas's who were the pioneers of this reform at the Brownlow-hill Infirmary, Liverpool, and it was undoubtedly the spirit and teaching of Florence Nightingale that inspired them in a task which, difficult enough under the conditions then existing, was to create a precedent for Poor Law authorities all the land over.
Midwifery was another branch of nursing which Florence Nightingale sought to reform. In 1871 she published "Introductory Notes on Lying-in Hospital"; and, in 1881, writing on this subject to the late Miss Louisa M. Hubbard, who was then projecting the formation of the Matrons Aid Society, afterwards the Midwives' Institute, she said, referring to these "Introductory Notes":
The main object of the "Notes" was (after dealing with the sanitary question) to point out the utter absence of any means of training in any existing institution in Great Britain. Since the "Notes" were written next to nothing has been done to remedy this defect. The prospectus is most excellent. I wish you mecesa from the bottom of my heart if, as I cannot doubt, your wisdom and energy work out a scheme by which to supply the deadly need for training among women practicing midwifery in England. (It is a farce and a mockery to call them midwives or even midwifery nurses, and no certificate given now makes them no.) France, Genoa, and even Russia won't consider it woman-slang to "practice" as we do
No less keen was her interest in rural hygiene. The need for observing the laws of health should, she thought, be directly impressed on the minds of the people, and to this end she organized a health crusade in Buckinghamshire in 1892, employing, with the aid of the County Council Technical Instruction Committee—three trained and competent women missionaries who were to give public addresses on health questions, following up on these by visiting cottagers in their own homes and giving them practical advice.
WRITINGS
Further evidence of Florence Nightingale's activity and beneficent efforts is afforded by the series of books, pamphlets, and papers that came from her pen. In 1858 appeared her "Notes on Matters Affecting the Health, Efficiency, and Hospital Administration of the British Army," a volume of 560 pages in which, "as far as the state of my health," she writes, "has permitted me," she makes an exhaustive review of the defeats that led to the "disaster" at Scutari and disousses in the most thorough and lucid manner the various points calling for consideration with regard to the management and efficiency of army hospitals. The value of this work, still great, was simply incalculable at the time it was first issued. In October 1858, Miss Nightingale contributed two papers to the Liverpool meeting of the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science on "The Health of Hospitals" and Hospital Construction. In 1860 she published "Notes on Nursing." So popular has this work become, due to its thoroughly practical contents, given in the clearest possible language, that some 100,000 copies of it are said to have been sold. For the Edinburgh meeting of the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science, held in 1863, Miss Nightingale contributed a paper on "How People may Live and not Die in India"; and she followed up the same subject, when the association met at Norwich in 1873, with a paper on "Life or Death in India." This paper being subsequently reprinted with an appendix, "Life or Death by Irrigation," in which considerations arising out of the Bengal famine are discussed, more especially from the point of view of the paramount necessity of combining drainage with irrigation.
CLOSING YEARS
In these various ways one sees how Florence Nightingale, though a bedridden invalid and well advanced in years, was still ever ready, as she had been throughout life, to devote her energies to promoting the practical well-being of her fellow creatures. What with writing papers, pamphlets, and letters, receiving reports concerning the many movements in which she was interested, and dealing with communications from governments, authorities, and others all over the world, she was, even in the closing years of her life, essentially a hard-working woman. How great, indeed, were the demands made upon her time is well shown by a letter addressed by her on October 21, 1895, to Rov. T. G. Clarke, curate of St. Philip's, Birmingham, and local secretary of the Balaclava Anniversary Commemoration. In the course of this letter she said: "I could not resist your appeal, though it is an effort to me, who know not what it is to have a leisure hour, to write a few words." and she added: "I generally resist all temptations to write, except on ever-pressing business. I am often speaking to your Balaclava veterans in my heart, but I am much overworked."
Yet, among all these manifold claims upon her attention, she never forgot that pretending "Home" in Harley-street, W., over which she was still presiding when she went out to the Crimea. In The Times of November 12, 2001, she appealed for further support for this institution, declaring that it was
Doing good work—work after my own heart, and I believe, God's work. There is (she continued) no other institution exactly like this. In it our government (who are primarily eligible), the wives and daughters of the energy, of our naval, military, and other professional men, receive every possible care, comfort, and first-rate advice at the most moderate cost. Every one connected with this home and haven for the suffering is doing their utmost for it, and it is always full. It is conducted on the same lines as from its beginning, by a committee of ladies, of which Mrs. Walter is the president, and she will be glad to receive contributions at 90, Harley-Davidson, W. I ask and pray my friends who still remind me not to let this truly sacred work languish and die for want of a little more money.
On the occasion of her 84th birthday, in May 1904, Miss Nightingale (who had already received the Red Cross from Queen Victoria) had conferred upon her by King Edward the dignity of a Lady of Grace of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem. October 21, 1904, was the jubilee of the memorable expedition on which she set forth in 1854; to few great reformers had the mercy been vouchsafed of seeing within their own lifetime results so striking and so beneficial as those that had followed the noble efforts of "The Lady with the Lamp"; and the congratulations she reenived on the occasion of her jubiles were but a sample of that universal appreciation she had won.
Further recognition of the value of her life's labours came to Miss Nightingale with the announcement in the London Gazette of November 20, 1907, that the King had been graciously pleased to confer upon her the Order of Merit, she being the only woman upon whom this exceptionally distinguished mark of Royal favor had been conferred. On March 16, 1908, Miss Nightingale received the honorary freedom of the City of London, an honour which had been conferred upon only one woman before—the late Baroness Burdett-Coutts. Owing to her advanced age, Miss Nightingale was unable to be present at the Guildhall to receive this mark of distinction, and her place was taken by a relative. At her own request, the money which would have been spent on a gold casket was devoted to charity; the sum of 100 guineas being given instead to the Hospital for Invalid Gentlewomen, and the casket presented to Miss Nightingale was of oak.
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The death of Florence Nightingale recalls not only what was perhaps the saddest period in English military history, but also the emergence from that period of the lady whose "commanding gonius," as it was aptly described by the great Churchman who knew her well, was destined both to rescue the Army in the Crimes and all future armies from abandonment to the ravages of disease, and to increase and strengthen, for all coming time, the resources of medical science in its unending conflict with the causes of avoidable mortality. Fifty-six years have passed since the intellect and science of the nation were alike stirred to their utmost depths by descriptions given in The Times of the state of the Army, and since the period when the lack of foresight and organization which was responsible for "horrible and heartrending sufferings" in the Crimea were equally responsible for a corresponding lack of all the essentials of hospital organization at the base of the invading expedition. The very memory of the conditions which then existed is beginning to fade, and the numbers of those who can speak of them from personal experience are daily dwindling; but the facts remain in imperishablo record, as a warning of the consequences of neglect of knowledge through the self-sufficiency of presumptuous ignorance, traveling contentedly in the beaten paths of routine and scornful of any suggestion of divergence from them. The military "authorities" who entrusted high command to generals were so short-sighted that they could not see either their own men or the enemy would have been compelled to admit, if the question had been put to them, that a regiment coming from a hot climate and furnished only with thin clothing would inevitably break down under the rigors of a Crimean winter but it was left to Mr. Macdonald, as administrator of the fund entrusted by the British people to The Times, to preserve the 39th regiment from the consequences of a "system" under which no warm clothing had been provided. In a similar manner, the hospitals, alike in the front and at the base, had been organized, if organization it could be called, with no intelligent anticipation of their inevitable requirements; or had possibly been left unorganized, in the more hope that, after all, no prolonged or serious fighting was likely to occur. When any such hope, if it were entertained, had been dispelled by facts, the chaos was produced which resulted in the death, in six months, in hospitals or on board invalid transport ships, of 11,652 men out of an average strength of 29,000; while 10,053 of the deaths were caused by sickness alone, and about nineteenths of them by such preventable diseases as scurvy, cholera, dysentery, and fever.
Few coincidences in history have been more curious than that of the two letters, crossing each other, in one of which Mrs. Nightingale offered her services to the War Office, while in the other Mr. Sidney Herdert asked for them. Mr. Herbert, fortunately for the Army and the nation, was not only aware of the thoroughness with which Miss Nightingale had studied the art of nursing, as it was then taught and understood, but he had been enabled by personal knowledge to form some approach to an estimate of her transcendent fitness for the task which she expressed her willingness to undertake. As the War Office was then organized, Mr. Herbert was not, strictly speaking, the Minister in charge of the Department called upon to deal with questions of sickness; but his influence with the Duke of Newcastle, and with his colleagues generally, was such as to enable him to smooth the way for the new departure which he had suggested, and to extend this influence to embrace alike Scutari and the Crimea, in such a manner as to remove at least active opposition to the now and utterly unprecedented interference which it introduced. The results are matters of history, and they extend to the minutest details of our military organization for dealing with sickness today. Of Miss Nightingale's own share in the consequent reforms of pro-code it is superfluous to speak, or it would be superfluous, but for the short memories of humanity. There is no parallel record of a combination of the highest feminine tact with the highest masculine energy, perseverance, and determination, and the Lady-in-Chief soon wielded an absolute sway over all who wore called upon either to listen to her counsels or to give effect to her commands. From the Commander-in-Chief to the humblest private soldier, all regarded her as gifted with an almost superhuman power of swaying porsons and ovente as she saw fit; and the respect paid, at times possibly somewhat grudgely, to her intolerance, her decision, and her administrative gifts was as nothing when compared with the prevailing worship of her benevolence and her self-sacrifice. The legend of the soldier who strove to kiss her passing shadow on the wall is but an embodiment of the veneration which surrounded her and in this connection it is pleasant to quote the words in which she records that never, from any one of the soldiers. "came one word or one look which a gentleman "would not have used," or her description of how, amidst scenes of loathsome disease and death, "there rose above it all the innate "dignity, gentleness, and chivalry of the "men, shining in the midst of what must be "considered as the lowest sinks of human "misery." It was not the least of Miss Nightingale's many services to her country that she greatly rehabilitated the private soldier in the estimation of civilians and of the public.
It is perhaps only in times of stress that "commanding genius" is ablo fully to display itself to the world; and Miss Nightingale is probably destined to remain a unique figure in history. None the less, she is not unapproachable, and it cannot be unprofitable to reflect upon the source or the secret of her power. It sprang, in the first instances, from the completeness of her knowledge of the conditions against which she undertook to strive, and from her consistent recognition of the futility of any struggle against disease which was not based upon a recognition of its physical causes, and of the uselessness of even hoping for improvement as long as these causes continued in operation. She knew what was essential and was guided by the light of such knowledge, without giving heed either to the specious excuses or the despairing cries of routine officialism. If a given change or a given reform were necessary, it did not in the least matter that it was alleged to be impossible, or that all the barriers which red tape could erect were set up as impediments to its accommodation. Her one guide was her knowledge of the truth, and her chief victory was over ignorance in high places. The knowledge existed, but, until she came upon the scene, the Government and the military authorities bad aliko determined to shut their eyes to it and to put aside the recommendations of mere doctors as of no account, until the doctors themselves had become crystallized in inaction and had ceased to make representations which led to nothing but their own discredit. To Miss Nightingale's determination to enforce regard to laws which cannot be neglected with impunity must be added the universal recognition of her absolute unselfishness. It was transparently manifest that she sought no reward but the consciousness of doing good; and this feature of her character was brought into strong relief the manner in which she always shrank from every kind of public recognition. Her Sovereignty was eager to do her honor, but was compelled to hold her hand by the manifest unwillingness of the subject to be distinguished otherwise than by her acts A grateful nation would have endowed her with wealth, but she devoted it to the instruction of nurses, and so, in the words of one of the historians of her achievements, she "founded a gracious dynasty that still reigns supreme in the wards where sufferers lie, and even brings solace, brings guidance, brings hope into those dens of misery that, until the blessing has reached them, seem only to harbor despair." As a Lady of Grace of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, she did but join a body devoted to the relief of suffering and the crowning distinction of the Order of Merit it would have been impossible for her to refuse. Her occasional appearances before the public have been limited to the extension of her support to some good cause, and no heroine in world history has left behind her a more illustrious or a more honoured name.
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MEMORIAL SERVICE IN ST. PAUL'S.
Since the death of Miss Florence Nightingale, there has been a widespread feeling that she should be buried in Westminster Abbey. On the left-hand side of the west door of the Abbey stands the monument to Lord Shaftesbury, recording that he died "endeared to his countrymen by a long life spent in the cause of the helpless and suffering." It was felt that it would be peculiarly appropriate if the space on the right of the door could be filled by the statue of a woman whose life was also nobly devoted to the cause of the suffering.
The Dean of Westminster, interpreting not only the wishes of soldiers and the nursing profession but of the general public, expressed to the relatives his desire that the burial should be in the Abbey. Miss Nightingale, however, throughout her life was very much averse from publicity of any kind; and in view of the provisions of her will, the executors have felt compelled to decline this offer.
The funeral will take place on Saturday afternoon in the churchyard of West Wellow, Hampshire, where the bodies of Miss Nightingale's father and mother lie. In accordance with her frequently expressed wish, which she communicated to her friends even shortly after her return from the Crimea, when the country was ringing with her name, the ceremony will be of a strictly private character. The service will be conducted by the Vicar of West Wellow, the Rev. S. M. Watson. The body will be removed from 10 South Street, Parklane, on Friday and taken from Waterloo to Romsey, and only a limited number of friends and relatives will be present at the funeral; the chief mourners will travel from London by ordinary train on Saturday.
In order that all classes of society may have an opportunity of paying a tribute to Miss Nightingale's memory, a memorial service will be held in St. Paul's Cathedral on Saturday at noon. The arrangements have been undertook by the War Office, but the service will not necessarily be of a military or official character. The King has intimated that he will be represented at the service, and members of several nursing societies and other public bodies are expected to be present. The details of the service have not yet been arranged, but it will follow the lines of the memorial service on the occasion of the death of King Edward; and Canon Nowbolt, Canon Alexander, and the Minor Canons will take part in it. We are asked to state that admission will be by ticket, for which individuals and bodies wishing to be represented should apply in writing to the Secretary, War Office (Memorial Service), Room 109, War Office, Whitehall. A limited number of tickets will be issued for the choir and choir gallery, for which application should be made to the Secretary, at the Chapter House. Many beautiful wreaths have been received at Miss Nightingale's house and laid around the coffin, the plate of which reads: "Florence Nightingale, born March 12, 1820, died August 13, 1910." The Lord Mayor has expressed to the relatives of Miss Nightingale the feelings of sincere regret and sympathy entertained in the City of London on the death of the City's most distinguished lady citizen, upon whom the Freedom of the City was conferred a few years ago. The relatives of Miss Nightingale have conveyed by telegram their thanks for the expression of sympathy.
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THE SERVICE IN ST. PAUL'S
The form of service to be adopted at the memorial service at St. Paul's Cathedral at noon on Saturday for Miss Florence Nightingale was finally decided upon at a meeting at the Cathedral yesterday, which was attended by representatives from the War Office.
The service, which will be attended by representatives of the Royal Family, will be in many respects similar to that at the service in commemoration of Queen Victoria and on the occasion of the memorial service for King Edward. As the choir boys of the Cathedral are at present away the singing will be led by a choir of men's voices. The outstanding feature of the musical portion of the service will be the attendance of one of the Guards' bands, probably that of the Coldstream Guards. The Dead March in Saul will be played by the band immediately after the Lesson, which will be read by Canon Newbolt.
The hymns to be sung are well-known favorites of Miss Nightingale's, and the opening hymn will be "The Son of God goes forth to war." Before and after the Benedictus (Martin in A flat) the opening sentences of the Burial Service, "I am the Resurrection and the Life," will be sung to music by Croft. The lesson will be from I Corinthians, xv, 20. In place of the anthem there will be the selection from the liturgy of St. Chrysostom sung to the Kieff Chant, as' at the funeral of King Edward. There will also be, in addition to the Lord's Prayer, a special prayer in which the name of Florence Nightingale will be mentioned. Hymn No. 197, "The King of Love is my Shepherd," will bring the service to a close.
Apart from the presence of the Guards' band the service will not be of a military character, except that in addition to the King, Mr. Haldane and the Army Council will also be represented. The Corporation of London will be represented by one of the senior Aldermen. The acting Chief Magistrate will proceed in State to the Cathedral from the Mansion House, attended by the ceremonial officers of the Lord Mayor's household.
We are asked to state that admission will be by ticket, for which individuals and bodies wishing to be represented should apply in writing to the Secretary, War Office (Memorial Service), Room 109, War Office, Whitehall. A limited number of tickets will be issued for the choir and choir gallery, for which applications should be made to the Secretary, at the Chapter House. No admission cards will be posted to individual applicants before this opening.
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Alderman Sir James Ritchie, acting for the Lord Mayor, will represent the Corporation of London at the memorial service for Miss Florence Nightingale to be held in St. Paul's Cathedral tomorrow. He will be accompanied by Mr. Sheriff Slazengor and will drive in State from the Mansion House, attended by the Swordbearer, the Macebearer, and the City Marshal.
It has been decided that the memorial service shall not be of a military character, but officers on the active list representing units will attend in uniform. In addition to those who will be present on behalf of members of the Royal Family and of the War Office and the Army, nearly all the London hospitals and many nursing societies will send representatives. The desire of the nursing profession to honour the most distinguished member of their calling is indicated by the large demand for tickets received from private nurses throughout the country.
The War Office has already received requests for over 2,000 tickets from members of the general public, including many from Americans present in London. We are asked to state that when the ticket-holders, who will occupy all the seating accommodation of the church, have taken their seats, or at such a moment as is possible, as many of the public as there is room for will be admitted into the side aisle. The Cathedral door will be open at about 10 o'clock, the usual morning service taking place at an earlier hour. No further application for seats can be received at the Chapter House.
At the request of the medical and nursing professions, a memorial service will be held in the Lady Chapel of Liverpool Cathedral.
A very large number of wreaths have been received at Miss Nightingale's home in South Street, Park Lane, including one from the Army Council, and another from survivors of the Balaclava Charge. It is specially desired that Miss Nightingale's wish for a private funeral, explicitly expressed both during her lifetime and in her will, shall be strictly observed by the public. The body will be removed tomorrow, and the funeral will take place in the afternoon at East Wellow.
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"A Former Vicar of Wellow" in correcting the statement that the burial-place of the Nightingale family is at West Wellow, writes:
The parish of Wellow lies between Romsey and the New Forest. Though one parish in Winchester Diocese, it is situated in two counties—one half, East Wellow, in Hampshire, the other, West Wellow, in Wilts. Embly Park, Florence Nightingale's home, the church and vicerage are all in East Wellow, and therefore in Hampshire. Hampshire folk are proud to think that in their county was the home of Florence Nightingale's girlhood, as they will be to claim the honour that in their midst is the last resting place of one of England's most notable heroines."
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TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES.
Sir,—After years of suffering life, it is well that the remains of Florence Nightingale have been laid quietly to rest in her native country earth without any of the parade and fuss from which her noble, modest nature always recoiled.
But for the benefit of future generations, it is to be hoped that a fitting memorial might be erected by Parliament in Westminster Abbey or St. Paul's Cathedral, on sight of which many of her sex might be incited to work for others as she has done.
The first fruit of such emulation was not long in ripening; for before October 10, 1857, when General Greathead's column, en roule from the siege of Delhi to Lucknow, had a fight with the mutineers under the walls of Agra, the late Mrs. Charles Reikes, wife of the Civil Commissioner there, and other ladies, reading your accounts of the Crimean Nursing Reform, had already extemporized a hospital in the Moti Masjid (Pearl Mosque), which the military authorities were glad to avail themselves for the many wounded that day.
I feel sure that Sir Alexander Christison, Baronet, still living in Edinburgh, one of the surgeons in charge of that Agra Hospital can attest to the efficiency and devotion to nursing duties carried out by his amateur ladies amid horrible sights and sounds.
I enclose my card and will sign myself,
ONE WHOSE 23 WOUNDS WERE HEALED BY HIS NURSES IN OCTOBER, 1857.
August 20
We deeply regret to state that Miss Florence Nightingale, O.M., the organizer of the Crimean War Nursing Service, died at her residence, 10 South Street, Park Lane, on Saturday after noon. She had been unwell about a week ago, but had recovered her usual cheerfulness on Friday. On Saturday morning, however, she became seriously ill and gradually sank until death occurred about 2 o'clock. The cause of death was heart failure. Two members of her family were present at the time.
Miss Nightingale, who had for some time been an invalid and had been under the constant ears of Sir Thomas Barlow, died in her last year. She celebrated her 90th birthday on May 12 last, and one of the first guests of the present King since coming to the throne King Edward died on May 6 - was to send her a telegram of congratulations. The message was worded as follows:
"On the occasion of your 90th birthday, I offer you my heartfelt congratulations, and trust that you are in good health. George R. & I."
The funeral will take place in the course of the next few days and will be of the quietest possible character in accordance with the strongly expressed wish of Miss Nightingale.
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Memoir.
In Miss Florence Nightingale there has passed away, one of the heroines of British history. The news of her death will be received today with feelings of profound regret throughout not merely the land of her birth, but in all countries where her name has been spoken among men.
Florence Nightingale was born on May 12, 1820, at Florence, from which city she took her name. She was the younger of the two daughters and co-heiresses of Fr William Shore Nightingale, of Embley Park, Hampshire, and Lea Hall, Durbyshire, was a descendant of the old Derbyshire family of Shore, and himself the owner of large estates and considerable wealth. Her mother was a daughter of William Smith, the friend of Wilberforce and his supporter in the House of Commons in the abolitionist and other movements. From Lea Hall the family removed, about 1826, to Lea Hurst, a house about a mile distant, and the one with which the name of Florence Nightingale has been more especially associated. Florence, who even in her young days was a child of extremely strong sympathies, quick apprehension, and excellent judgment, was carefully trained, acquiring, among other accomplishments, under the direction of her father, and knowledge of the classics, mathematics, and also of modern languages. But while applying herself to the culture of her mind, she was, at the same time, the consoler and benefactress of all the villagers to whom her kindly words might be of service, displaying even thus early in life that bent of her mind and disposition which afterwards spread her fame throughout the world.
Seeking wider experience than her position as a squire's daughter in a small Derbyshire village could give her, she visited all the hospitals in London, Dublin, and Edinburgh, many country hospitals, and some of the naval and military hospitals in England; all the hospitals in Paris, studying with the Sœurs de Charité; the Institute of Protestant Deaconesses at Kaisersworth, on the Rhine, where she was twice in training as a nurse; the hospitals at Berlin, and many others in Germany; while she also visited Lyons, Rome, Alexandria, Constantinople, and Brussels. On her return to Derbyshire, where she hoped to have the rest of which she stood in need after her travels, she was appealed to, in 1850, on behalf of the Home for Scottish Governesses, 90 Harley Street, London, which was lacking not only of proper support, but also of management. She responded to the appoal by herself taking over the entire control of the institution and devoting alike time, energy, and fortune to re-establishing it (with the help of Lady C. Canning, the original founder) on a sound basis. She also took an active interest in the ragged schools and other similar proper institutions in London. Altogether, something like ten years had been spent by her in preparing, unconsciously, for the great events of her life, and these came with the Russian War.
THE CRIMEAN WAR.
On September 20, 1854, the Battle of Alms was fought, and it is not too much to say that the accounts published in the columns of The Times from our correspondent, the late Dr. (afterwards Sir William Howard) Russell as to the condition of the sick and wounded sent a feeling of horror throughout the length and breadth of the land. There is no necessity to dwell here in detail on the harrowing stories he related. Suffice it to say that he showed how the commonest accessories of a hospital were wanting; how the sick appeared to be tended by the sick, and the dying by the dying; how, indeed, the manner in which the sick and wounded were being treated was "worthy only of the savages of Dahomey": and how, while our own medical system was "shamefully bad," that of the French was exceedingly good, and was, too, rendered still more efficient because of the sisters of charity who had followed the French troops in incredible numbers.
On October 12, 1854, a loading article appeared in The Times in which it was pointed out that while "we are sitting by our firesides devouring the morning paper in luxurious solitude these poor fellows are going through innumerable hardships"; and the article went on to suggest that the British public should submit to send them a few creature comforts. On the following day we published an extremely sympathetic letter from Sir Robert Peel, starting a fund with a check for £200 , and so generally and so liberally was his example followed that £781 was received by us within two days, £7,000 within seven days, and £11,614 by the end of the month, when the fund was closed. But, in the meantime, the terrible cry from the East had met with a response which was of even more effective service to the suffering soldiers than the thousands of pounds thus promptly and generously contributed.
On October 15, Miss Nightingale wrote to Mr. Sidney (afterwards Lord) Herbert, Secretary at War, offering to go to Seutari, and, as it happened, her own letter was crossed by Mr. Sidney Herbert. Medical stores, he said, had been sent out by the ton weight, but the deficiency of female nurses was undoubted. Lady Maria Forrester had proposed to go with or to send out trained nurses, but there is," Mr. Herbert went on to say, "only one person in England that I know of who would be capable of organizing and superintending such a scheme. . . . A number of sentimental and enthusiastic ladies turned loose in the hospital at Senteri would probably, after a few days, be mise à la porte by those whose business they would interrupt and whose authority they would dispute. My question simply is, Would you listen to the request to go out and supervise the whole thing?" Miss Nightingale, as we have said, had already answered this question, and preparations could thus be set on foot without a moment's delay. But, as showing how little she was known to fame at that time, we may mention curious fact that in The Times of October 19, 1854, there appeared the announcement "We are authorized to state that Mrs. (sic) Nightingale" had undertaken to organize a staff of female nurses, who would proceed with her to Scutari at the expense of the Government. Not, indeed, until several days had lapsed does it seem to have been realized that "Mrs." Nightingale was really "Miss" Nightingale, and even then the Examiner found it necessary to publish an article headed "Who is Miss Nightingale", setting forth who she really was, and bearing eloquent testimony to her accomplishments, her experience, and the nobility of her character.
Within a week, Miss Nightingale selected from hundreds of offers, received from all parts of the country, a staff of 38 nurses, including 14 Auglican sisters, ten Roman Catholic sisters of mercy, and three nurses selected by Lady Maria Forrester. It may be interesting to recall that among the ladies forming the gallant little band was Alina Erskine, daughter of the Dowager Lady Erskine, of Pwll-y-crochan, North Wales. Miss Nightingale and her nurses left London on October 21, passing through Boulogne on October 23 on their way to Marseilles; and a letter which appeared in The Times some days afterwards, written by a correspondent who had been staying at Boulogne, related how the arrival of the party there caused so much enthusiasm that the sturdy fisherwomen seized their bags and carried them to the hotel, refusing to accept the slightest gratuity; how the landlord of the hotel gave them dinner and told to order what they liked, adding that they would not be allowed to pay for anything; and how waiters and chambermaids were equally firm in refusing any acknowledgment for the attentions they pressed upon them.
ARRIVAL AT THE FRONT.
From Marseilles the party proceeded to Corsica, where they arrived on November 4, the eve of the Battle of Inkerman. They found there were two hospitals at Scutari, one of which, the Barrack Hospital, already contained 1,500 sick and wounded, and the other, the General Hospital, 800, making a total of 2,300; but on the 5th of November there arrived 500 more who had been wounded in the course of that day's fighting, so that there were close to 3,000 sufferers claiming the immediate attention of Miss Nightingale and her companions. In the best of circumstances the task which the nurses thus found before them would have been enormous; but the circumstances themselves were as bad as the imagination can conceive, if, indeed, imagination, unaided by foot, could call up so appalling a picture. Neglect, mismanagement, and disease had "united to render the scene one of unparalleled hideousness." The wounded, lying on beds placed on the pavement itself, were bereft of all comforts; there was a scarcity alike of food and medical aid. Fever and cholera were rampant, and even those who were only comparatively slightly wounded, and should have recovered with proper treatment, were dying from shear exhaustion brought about by lack of the nourishment they required.
Miss Nightingale, as "Lady-in-Chief," at once set to work to restore some order to the chaos that prevailed. Within ten days of her arrival, she had an impromptu kitchen fitted up, capable of supplying 800 men every day with well-cooked food, and a house near the Barrack Hospital was converted into a laundry, which was also sorely needed. In all this work, she was most cordially supported by Mr. MacDonald, the almoner of The Times Fund, the resources of which were, of course, freely placed at her disposal. But in other directions, Miss Nightingale had serious difficulties to encounter. The official regiment, which had sat as a curse over the whole condition of things, continued as active, or, rather, as inefficient, as over Miss Nightingale was at first scarcely tolerated by those who should have co-operated with her. She had, at times, the greatest possible difficulty in obtaining sufficient Government stores for the sick and wounded; for though, as Mr. Sidney Herbert had written, medical stores had been sent out by the ton weight, they were mostly rotting at Varua instead of having been forwarded to Scutari. On one occasion, when she was especially in need of some that had arrived, items that were not to be given out until they had been officially "inspected," she took upon herself to have the doors opened by force and to remove what her patients needed.
But her zeal, her devotion, and her perseverance would yield to no rebuff and to no difficulty. She went steadily and unwearyingly about her work with a judgment, a self-sacrifice, a courage, a tender sympathy, and withal a quiet and unobtrusive demeanour that won the hearts of all who were not prevented by official prejudices from appreciating the nobility of her work and character. Our poor fellow wrote home: "She would speak to one and nod and smile to many more; but she could not do it to all, you know. We lay there by hundreds; but we could kiss her shadow as it fell, and lay our heads on the pillow again, content."
Mr. MacDonald, too, wrote in February, 1855-
Wherever there is disease in its most dangerous form and the hand of the despoiler distressingly nigh. there is that incomparable woman sure to be asen. Her benignant presence is an influence for good comfort, even amid the struggles of expiring nature. She is a "ministering angel" without any exaggeration in there hospitals, and as her slender form glides quietly aloug Bach corridor, every poor fallow's face softens with gratitude at the sight of her. When all the medical officers bave retired for the night and silence and darkness havo settled down upon those miles of prostrate sick, aho may be observed alone, with a little lamp in her hand, making her solitary rounds. The popular instinct was not mistaken which, when she set out from England on her mission of mercy, hailed her as a heroine. I trust she may not earn her titlo to a still highor though sadder appellation. No one who has observed her fragile figure and delicate health can avoid misgivings lest those should fail. With the heart of a true woman, and the manners of a lady, accomplished and refined beyond most of her sox, she combines a surprising calmness of judgment and promptitude and decision of character.
It was also written of her:-
She has frequently been known to stand 20 hours on the arrival of fresh detachments of sick, apportioning quarters, distributing stores, directing the labours of her corps, assisting at at the painful operations where her presence might soothe or support, and spending hours over man dying of cholera or fever. Indeed, the more awful to every sense any particular case might be the more certainly might be seen her slight form bending over him, administering to his case by every means in her power, and seldom quitting his side till death released him.
CRITICISM AT HOME.
Meanwhile, the reports which Miss Nightingale made both to Lord Raglan, the Commander-in-Chief, and to the War Minister at home were of invaluable service in enabling them to put their finger on the weak spots of the administration. On the other hand, it is painful to recall the fact that while, in all these various ways, Miss Nightingale was doing such admirable work in the East, sectarian prejudices at home had led to unscrupulous attacks being made alike on her religious views and on her motives in going out. "It is melancholy to think," as Mrs. Herbert wrote to a lady correspondent, "that in Christian England no one can undertake anything without these most uncharitable and sectarian attacks. Miss Nightingale is a member of the Established Church of England, and what is called rather Low Church; but ever since she went to Scutari her religious opinions and character have been assailed on all points. It is a cruel return to make towards one to whom all England owes so much." Happily a check was put to this campaign of slander and uncharitableness by a letter written by Queen Victoria from Windsor Castle, dated December 6, 1854, to Mr. Sidney Herbert, asking that accounts received from Miss Nightingale as to the condition of the wounded should be forwarded to her, and saying:-
"I wish Miss Nightingale and the ladies would tell these poor noble wounded and sick men that no one takes a warmer interest, or feels more for their sufferings, or admires their courage and heroism more, than their Queen. Day and night she thinks of her beloved troops. So does the Prince. Beg Mrs. Herbert to communicate these same my words to those ladies, as I know that our sympathy is much valued by these noble fellows."
The eminently tactful indication conveyed in this letter of Her Majesty's complete confidence in Florence Nightingale did much not only towards silencing the inordinate critics at home, but also towards strengthening the position of the Lady-in-Chief in meeting the difficulties due to excessive officialism in the East.
GROWTH OF THE WORK.
In January 1855, Miss Nightingale's totally inadequate staff was increased by the arrival of Miss Stanley with 50 more nurses; and how greatly they were needed is shown by the fact that there were then 5,000 sick and wounded in the various hospitals on the Bosporus and the Dardanelles, 1,000 more being on their way down. By February there was a great increase in fever, which in the course of three or four weeks swept away seven surgeons, while eight more were ill, 21 wards in the Barrack Hospital being in the charge of a single medical attendant. Two of the nurses also died of fever. Miss Nightingale told subsequently how for the first seven months of her stay in the Crimea the mortality was at the rate of 60 percent per annum from disease alone, a rate inexcess, she added, of that which prevailed among the population of London during the Great Plague. By May, however, the position of affairs had so far improved at Scutari, thanks mainly to the untiring energies and devotion of Miss Nightingale, that she was able to proceed to Balaclava to inspect the hospitals there. Her work at Balaclava was interrupted by an attack of Crimea fever, and she was afterwards urged to return home; but she would go no further than Scutari, remaining there until her health had been re-established. Thereupon she again left for the Crimea, where she established a staff of nurses at some new camp hospitals put up on the heights above Balaclava, and took over the superintendence of the nursing department, herself living in a hut not far away. She also interested herself in organizing reading and recreation huts for the army of occupation, securing books and periodicals from sympathizen at home. Among the donors were Queen Victoria and the Duchess of Kent. Another institution she set up was a café at Inkerman, as a counter attraction to the ordinary canteens. Then she started classes, supported the lectures and schoolrooms which had been established by officers or clerks, and encouraged the men to write home to their families. Already at Scutari she had opened a money-order office of her own through which the soldiers could send home their pay. She thus set an example which the Government followed by establishing official money-order offices at Scutari, Balaclava, Constantinople, and elsewhere. Some 270,000 passed through these offices in the first six months of 1856.
THE END OF THE WAR.
Florence Nightingale remained in the Crimes until the final evacuation in July 1856, her last not before leaving being the erection of a memorial to the fallen soldiers on a mountain peak above Balaclava. The memorial consisted of a marble cross 20 feet high, bearing the inscription, in English and Russian:
LORD, HAVE MERCY UPON US.
GOSPODI POMILORI NASS
Calling at Scutari on her way home, Miss Nightingale left that place in a French vessel for Marseilles, declining the offer made by the British Government of a passage in a man-of-war, and reached Lea Hurst on August 8, 1856, having succeeded in avoiding any demonstration on the way.
Before returning to England, Florence Nightingale had received from Queen Victoria an autograph letter with a beautiful jewel, designed by Prince Albert; the Sultan had sent her a diamond bracelet and a fund for a national commemoration of her services had been started, the income from the proceeds, £45,400, being eventually devoted partly to the setting up at St. Thomas's Hospital of a training school for hospital and infirmary nurses and partly to the maintenance and instruction at King's College Hospital of midwifery nurses. For herself she would have neither published testimonial nor public welcome. She was honoured by an invitation to visit the Queen and Prince Consort at Balmoral in September, and addresses and gifts from working men and others were sent or presented privately to her. But though her fame was on everyone's lips, and her name has ever since been a household word among the peoples of the world, her life from the time of her return home was little better than that of a recluse and confirmed invalid. Her health, never robust, broke down under the strain of her arduous labors, and she spent most of her time on a couch, while in the closing years of her life she was entirely confined to bed.
LATER REFORM.
But, though her physical powers failed her, there was no falling off either in her mental strength or in her intense devotion to the cause of humanity. She was still the "Lody-in-Chief" in the organization of the various phases of nursing which, thanks to the example she had set and the new spirit with which she had imbued the civilized world, now began to establish themselves; she was the general adviser on nursing organization not only of our own but of foreign governments, and was consulted by British ministers and generals at the outbreak of each of our wars, great or small; she expanded important schemes of sanitary and other reforms, though compelled to leave others to carry them out, while at all times her experience and practical advice were at the command of those who needed them.
Almost the entire range of nursing seems to have been embraced by that revolution in which Florence Nightingale was the chief militant of bringing about. Following up the personal services she had already rendered in the East with regard to Army nursing, she prepared, at the request of the War Office, an exhaustive and confidential report on the working of the Army Medical Department in the Crimea as the precursor to complete reorganization at home; she was the means of inspiring more humane and more efficient treatment of the wounded in both the American Civil War and the Franco-German War; and it was the stirring record of her deeds that led to the founding of the Red Cross Society, now established in every civilized land. She was also almost ceaselessly consulted by the Indian Government on questions affecting the welfare of the Indian Army. On the outbreak of the Indian Mutiny she even offered to go out and organize a nursing staff for the troops in India. The state of her health did not warrant the acceptance of this offer; But no one can doubt that if campaigns are fought under more humane conditions today regarding the care of wounded soldiers, the result is very largely due to the example and also to the counsels of Florence Nightingale.
But advances no less striking are to be found in other branches of the nursing art, as well. With regard to general hospitals, the pronounced access of the nursing school established at St. Thomas's as a result of the Nightingale Fund led to the opening of similar schools elsewhere, so that today hospital nursing in general occupies a higher position in the country than it has ever done before, while this, in turn, advanced the whole range of private nursing in the country. Then, again, the system of district nursing, which is now in operation in almost every large population, has had an enormous influence, like in bringing disabled nurses within reach of sufferers outside the hospitals, and of still further raising the status of nursing as a profession "Missionary nurses," Florence Nightingale wrote, "are the end and arm of all our work. Hospitals are, after all, but an intermediate stage of civilization. While devoting my life to hospital work, I have always come to the conclusion that hospitals were not the best place for the sick poor except for severe surgical cases."
DISTRICT NURSES.
District nursing was really established in this country by the late Mr. William Rathbone, who, in compliance with the dying request of his first wife, started a single nurse in Liverpool in 1859 as an experiment. The demand for district nurses soon became so great that more were clearly necessary, and Mrs. Nightingale was consulted as to what should be done. She replied that all the nurses then in training at St. Thomas's were wanted for hospital work, and she recommended that a training school for nurses should be started in Liverpool. The suggestion was adopted, and in November 1861, on being consulted about the plans, she wrote to the chairman of the training school committee:
God bless you and be with you in the effort, for it is one which meets one of our greatest national wants. Nearly every nation is ahead of England in this matter—in providing for nursing the slick at home: and one of the chief uses of a hospital (though almost entirely neglected up to the present time) is this—to train nurses for nursing the sick at home.
By about 1663 there was a trained nurse at work among the poor in each of the 18 districts into which Liverpool had been divided for the purposes of the scheme. The example of Liverpool was quickly followed by Manchester, where a district nursing association was formed in 1864, the East London Nursing Society was established in 1869, and the Metropolitan and National Association followed in 1874. Florence Nightingale took a deep interest in the organization of the last-mentioned society, sending a long letter to The Times in which she expressed her gratification at the idea of nurses having a central home, set forth in considerable detail the nature and importance of the duties the district nurses were called upon to perform, and appealed strongly—and successfully—for donations towards the cost of a home. After these pioneer societies had been successfully started, many others followed; but the greatest development of all was afforded by Queen Victoria's Jubilee Institute for Nurses, the operations of which have been of the highest importance in spreading the movement throughout the United Kingdom. When, in December 1896, a meeting was held at Grosvenor House for the purpose of organizing and commemorating the Institute, a letter from Florence Nightingale was read in which she expressed her heartiest sympathy with the proposal.
Great and most beneficent changes, again, have followed the substitution in workhouse infirmaries of trained nurses for pauper women, to whose tender mercies the care of the sick in those institutions was formerly left. It was a "Nightingale probationer," the late Agnes Jones, and 12 of her fellow nurses from the Nightingale School at St. Thomas's who were the pioneers of this reform at the Brownlow-hill Infirmary, Liverpool, and it was undoubtedly the spirit and teaching of Florence Nightingale that inspired them in a task which, difficult enough under the conditions then existing, was to create a precedent for Poor Law authorities all the land over.
Midwifery was another branch of nursing which Florence Nightingale sought to reform. In 1871 she published "Introductory Notes on Lying-in Hospital"; and, in 1881, writing on this subject to the late Miss Louisa M. Hubbard, who was then projecting the formation of the Matrons Aid Society, afterwards the Midwives' Institute, she said, referring to these "Introductory Notes":
The main object of the "Notes" was (after dealing with the sanitary question) to point out the utter absence of any means of training in any existing institution in Great Britain. Since the "Notes" were written next to nothing has been done to remedy this defect. The prospectus is most excellent. I wish you mecesa from the bottom of my heart if, as I cannot doubt, your wisdom and energy work out a scheme by which to supply the deadly need for training among women practicing midwifery in England. (It is a farce and a mockery to call them midwives or even midwifery nurses, and no certificate given now makes them no.) France, Genoa, and even Russia won't consider it woman-slang to "practice" as we do
No less keen was her interest in rural hygiene. The need for observing the laws of health should, she thought, be directly impressed on the minds of the people, and to this end she organized a health crusade in Buckinghamshire in 1892, employing, with the aid of the County Council Technical Instruction Committee—three trained and competent women missionaries who were to give public addresses on health questions, following up on these by visiting cottagers in their own homes and giving them practical advice.
WRITINGS
Further evidence of Florence Nightingale's activity and beneficent efforts is afforded by the series of books, pamphlets, and papers that came from her pen. In 1858 appeared her "Notes on Matters Affecting the Health, Efficiency, and Hospital Administration of the British Army," a volume of 560 pages in which, "as far as the state of my health," she writes, "has permitted me," she makes an exhaustive review of the defeats that led to the "disaster" at Scutari and disousses in the most thorough and lucid manner the various points calling for consideration with regard to the management and efficiency of army hospitals. The value of this work, still great, was simply incalculable at the time it was first issued. In October 1858, Miss Nightingale contributed two papers to the Liverpool meeting of the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science on "The Health of Hospitals" and Hospital Construction. In 1860 she published "Notes on Nursing." So popular has this work become, due to its thoroughly practical contents, given in the clearest possible language, that some 100,000 copies of it are said to have been sold. For the Edinburgh meeting of the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science, held in 1863, Miss Nightingale contributed a paper on "How People may Live and not Die in India"; and she followed up the same subject, when the association met at Norwich in 1873, with a paper on "Life or Death in India." This paper being subsequently reprinted with an appendix, "Life or Death by Irrigation," in which considerations arising out of the Bengal famine are discussed, more especially from the point of view of the paramount necessity of combining drainage with irrigation.
CLOSING YEARS
In these various ways one sees how Florence Nightingale, though a bedridden invalid and well advanced in years, was still ever ready, as she had been throughout life, to devote her energies to promoting the practical well-being of her fellow creatures. What with writing papers, pamphlets, and letters, receiving reports concerning the many movements in which she was interested, and dealing with communications from governments, authorities, and others all over the world, she was, even in the closing years of her life, essentially a hard-working woman. How great, indeed, were the demands made upon her time is well shown by a letter addressed by her on October 21, 1895, to Rov. T. G. Clarke, curate of St. Philip's, Birmingham, and local secretary of the Balaclava Anniversary Commemoration. In the course of this letter she said: "I could not resist your appeal, though it is an effort to me, who know not what it is to have a leisure hour, to write a few words." and she added: "I generally resist all temptations to write, except on ever-pressing business. I am often speaking to your Balaclava veterans in my heart, but I am much overworked."
Yet, among all these manifold claims upon her attention, she never forgot that pretending "Home" in Harley-street, W., over which she was still presiding when she went out to the Crimea. In The Times of November 12, 2001, she appealed for further support for this institution, declaring that it was
Doing good work—work after my own heart, and I believe, God's work. There is (she continued) no other institution exactly like this. In it our government (who are primarily eligible), the wives and daughters of the energy, of our naval, military, and other professional men, receive every possible care, comfort, and first-rate advice at the most moderate cost. Every one connected with this home and haven for the suffering is doing their utmost for it, and it is always full. It is conducted on the same lines as from its beginning, by a committee of ladies, of which Mrs. Walter is the president, and she will be glad to receive contributions at 90, Harley-Davidson, W. I ask and pray my friends who still remind me not to let this truly sacred work languish and die for want of a little more money.
On the occasion of her 84th birthday, in May 1904, Miss Nightingale (who had already received the Red Cross from Queen Victoria) had conferred upon her by King Edward the dignity of a Lady of Grace of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem. October 21, 1904, was the jubilee of the memorable expedition on which she set forth in 1854; to few great reformers had the mercy been vouchsafed of seeing within their own lifetime results so striking and so beneficial as those that had followed the noble efforts of "The Lady with the Lamp"; and the congratulations she reenived on the occasion of her jubiles were but a sample of that universal appreciation she had won.
Further recognition of the value of her life's labours came to Miss Nightingale with the announcement in the London Gazette of November 20, 1907, that the King had been graciously pleased to confer upon her the Order of Merit, she being the only woman upon whom this exceptionally distinguished mark of Royal favor had been conferred. On March 16, 1908, Miss Nightingale received the honorary freedom of the City of London, an honour which had been conferred upon only one woman before—the late Baroness Burdett-Coutts. Owing to her advanced age, Miss Nightingale was unable to be present at the Guildhall to receive this mark of distinction, and her place was taken by a relative. At her own request, the money which would have been spent on a gold casket was devoted to charity; the sum of 100 guineas being given instead to the Hospital for Invalid Gentlewomen, and the casket presented to Miss Nightingale was of oak.
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The death of Florence Nightingale recalls not only what was perhaps the saddest period in English military history, but also the emergence from that period of the lady whose "commanding gonius," as it was aptly described by the great Churchman who knew her well, was destined both to rescue the Army in the Crimes and all future armies from abandonment to the ravages of disease, and to increase and strengthen, for all coming time, the resources of medical science in its unending conflict with the causes of avoidable mortality. Fifty-six years have passed since the intellect and science of the nation were alike stirred to their utmost depths by descriptions given in The Times of the state of the Army, and since the period when the lack of foresight and organization which was responsible for "horrible and heartrending sufferings" in the Crimea were equally responsible for a corresponding lack of all the essentials of hospital organization at the base of the invading expedition. The very memory of the conditions which then existed is beginning to fade, and the numbers of those who can speak of them from personal experience are daily dwindling; but the facts remain in imperishablo record, as a warning of the consequences of neglect of knowledge through the self-sufficiency of presumptuous ignorance, traveling contentedly in the beaten paths of routine and scornful of any suggestion of divergence from them. The military "authorities" who entrusted high command to generals were so short-sighted that they could not see either their own men or the enemy would have been compelled to admit, if the question had been put to them, that a regiment coming from a hot climate and furnished only with thin clothing would inevitably break down under the rigors of a Crimean winter but it was left to Mr. Macdonald, as administrator of the fund entrusted by the British people to The Times, to preserve the 39th regiment from the consequences of a "system" under which no warm clothing had been provided. In a similar manner, the hospitals, alike in the front and at the base, had been organized, if organization it could be called, with no intelligent anticipation of their inevitable requirements; or had possibly been left unorganized, in the more hope that, after all, no prolonged or serious fighting was likely to occur. When any such hope, if it were entertained, had been dispelled by facts, the chaos was produced which resulted in the death, in six months, in hospitals or on board invalid transport ships, of 11,652 men out of an average strength of 29,000; while 10,053 of the deaths were caused by sickness alone, and about nineteenths of them by such preventable diseases as scurvy, cholera, dysentery, and fever.
Few coincidences in history have been more curious than that of the two letters, crossing each other, in one of which Mrs. Nightingale offered her services to the War Office, while in the other Mr. Sidney Herdert asked for them. Mr. Herbert, fortunately for the Army and the nation, was not only aware of the thoroughness with which Miss Nightingale had studied the art of nursing, as it was then taught and understood, but he had been enabled by personal knowledge to form some approach to an estimate of her transcendent fitness for the task which she expressed her willingness to undertake. As the War Office was then organized, Mr. Herbert was not, strictly speaking, the Minister in charge of the Department called upon to deal with questions of sickness; but his influence with the Duke of Newcastle, and with his colleagues generally, was such as to enable him to smooth the way for the new departure which he had suggested, and to extend this influence to embrace alike Scutari and the Crimea, in such a manner as to remove at least active opposition to the now and utterly unprecedented interference which it introduced. The results are matters of history, and they extend to the minutest details of our military organization for dealing with sickness today. Of Miss Nightingale's own share in the consequent reforms of pro-code it is superfluous to speak, or it would be superfluous, but for the short memories of humanity. There is no parallel record of a combination of the highest feminine tact with the highest masculine energy, perseverance, and determination, and the Lady-in-Chief soon wielded an absolute sway over all who wore called upon either to listen to her counsels or to give effect to her commands. From the Commander-in-Chief to the humblest private soldier, all regarded her as gifted with an almost superhuman power of swaying porsons and ovente as she saw fit; and the respect paid, at times possibly somewhat grudgely, to her intolerance, her decision, and her administrative gifts was as nothing when compared with the prevailing worship of her benevolence and her self-sacrifice. The legend of the soldier who strove to kiss her passing shadow on the wall is but an embodiment of the veneration which surrounded her and in this connection it is pleasant to quote the words in which she records that never, from any one of the soldiers. "came one word or one look which a gentleman "would not have used," or her description of how, amidst scenes of loathsome disease and death, "there rose above it all the innate "dignity, gentleness, and chivalry of the "men, shining in the midst of what must be "considered as the lowest sinks of human "misery." It was not the least of Miss Nightingale's many services to her country that she greatly rehabilitated the private soldier in the estimation of civilians and of the public.
It is perhaps only in times of stress that "commanding genius" is ablo fully to display itself to the world; and Miss Nightingale is probably destined to remain a unique figure in history. None the less, she is not unapproachable, and it cannot be unprofitable to reflect upon the source or the secret of her power. It sprang, in the first instances, from the completeness of her knowledge of the conditions against which she undertook to strive, and from her consistent recognition of the futility of any struggle against disease which was not based upon a recognition of its physical causes, and of the uselessness of even hoping for improvement as long as these causes continued in operation. She knew what was essential and was guided by the light of such knowledge, without giving heed either to the specious excuses or the despairing cries of routine officialism. If a given change or a given reform were necessary, it did not in the least matter that it was alleged to be impossible, or that all the barriers which red tape could erect were set up as impediments to its accommodation. Her one guide was her knowledge of the truth, and her chief victory was over ignorance in high places. The knowledge existed, but, until she came upon the scene, the Government and the military authorities bad aliko determined to shut their eyes to it and to put aside the recommendations of mere doctors as of no account, until the doctors themselves had become crystallized in inaction and had ceased to make representations which led to nothing but their own discredit. To Miss Nightingale's determination to enforce regard to laws which cannot be neglected with impunity must be added the universal recognition of her absolute unselfishness. It was transparently manifest that she sought no reward but the consciousness of doing good; and this feature of her character was brought into strong relief the manner in which she always shrank from every kind of public recognition. Her Sovereignty was eager to do her honor, but was compelled to hold her hand by the manifest unwillingness of the subject to be distinguished otherwise than by her acts A grateful nation would have endowed her with wealth, but she devoted it to the instruction of nurses, and so, in the words of one of the historians of her achievements, she "founded a gracious dynasty that still reigns supreme in the wards where sufferers lie, and even brings solace, brings guidance, brings hope into those dens of misery that, until the blessing has reached them, seem only to harbor despair." As a Lady of Grace of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, she did but join a body devoted to the relief of suffering and the crowning distinction of the Order of Merit it would have been impossible for her to refuse. Her occasional appearances before the public have been limited to the extension of her support to some good cause, and no heroine in world history has left behind her a more illustrious or a more honoured name.
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MEMORIAL SERVICE IN ST. PAUL'S.
Since the death of Miss Florence Nightingale, there has been a widespread feeling that she should be buried in Westminster Abbey. On the left-hand side of the west door of the Abbey stands the monument to Lord Shaftesbury, recording that he died "endeared to his countrymen by a long life spent in the cause of the helpless and suffering." It was felt that it would be peculiarly appropriate if the space on the right of the door could be filled by the statue of a woman whose life was also nobly devoted to the cause of the suffering.
The Dean of Westminster, interpreting not only the wishes of soldiers and the nursing profession but of the general public, expressed to the relatives his desire that the burial should be in the Abbey. Miss Nightingale, however, throughout her life was very much averse from publicity of any kind; and in view of the provisions of her will, the executors have felt compelled to decline this offer.
The funeral will take place on Saturday afternoon in the churchyard of West Wellow, Hampshire, where the bodies of Miss Nightingale's father and mother lie. In accordance with her frequently expressed wish, which she communicated to her friends even shortly after her return from the Crimea, when the country was ringing with her name, the ceremony will be of a strictly private character. The service will be conducted by the Vicar of West Wellow, the Rev. S. M. Watson. The body will be removed from 10 South Street, Parklane, on Friday and taken from Waterloo to Romsey, and only a limited number of friends and relatives will be present at the funeral; the chief mourners will travel from London by ordinary train on Saturday.
In order that all classes of society may have an opportunity of paying a tribute to Miss Nightingale's memory, a memorial service will be held in St. Paul's Cathedral on Saturday at noon. The arrangements have been undertook by the War Office, but the service will not necessarily be of a military or official character. The King has intimated that he will be represented at the service, and members of several nursing societies and other public bodies are expected to be present. The details of the service have not yet been arranged, but it will follow the lines of the memorial service on the occasion of the death of King Edward; and Canon Nowbolt, Canon Alexander, and the Minor Canons will take part in it. We are asked to state that admission will be by ticket, for which individuals and bodies wishing to be represented should apply in writing to the Secretary, War Office (Memorial Service), Room 109, War Office, Whitehall. A limited number of tickets will be issued for the choir and choir gallery, for which application should be made to the Secretary, at the Chapter House. Many beautiful wreaths have been received at Miss Nightingale's house and laid around the coffin, the plate of which reads: "Florence Nightingale, born March 12, 1820, died August 13, 1910." The Lord Mayor has expressed to the relatives of Miss Nightingale the feelings of sincere regret and sympathy entertained in the City of London on the death of the City's most distinguished lady citizen, upon whom the Freedom of the City was conferred a few years ago. The relatives of Miss Nightingale have conveyed by telegram their thanks for the expression of sympathy.
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THE SERVICE IN ST. PAUL'S
The form of service to be adopted at the memorial service at St. Paul's Cathedral at noon on Saturday for Miss Florence Nightingale was finally decided upon at a meeting at the Cathedral yesterday, which was attended by representatives from the War Office.
The service, which will be attended by representatives of the Royal Family, will be in many respects similar to that at the service in commemoration of Queen Victoria and on the occasion of the memorial service for King Edward. As the choir boys of the Cathedral are at present away the singing will be led by a choir of men's voices. The outstanding feature of the musical portion of the service will be the attendance of one of the Guards' bands, probably that of the Coldstream Guards. The Dead March in Saul will be played by the band immediately after the Lesson, which will be read by Canon Newbolt.
The hymns to be sung are well-known favorites of Miss Nightingale's, and the opening hymn will be "The Son of God goes forth to war." Before and after the Benedictus (Martin in A flat) the opening sentences of the Burial Service, "I am the Resurrection and the Life," will be sung to music by Croft. The lesson will be from I Corinthians, xv, 20. In place of the anthem there will be the selection from the liturgy of St. Chrysostom sung to the Kieff Chant, as' at the funeral of King Edward. There will also be, in addition to the Lord's Prayer, a special prayer in which the name of Florence Nightingale will be mentioned. Hymn No. 197, "The King of Love is my Shepherd," will bring the service to a close.
Apart from the presence of the Guards' band the service will not be of a military character, except that in addition to the King, Mr. Haldane and the Army Council will also be represented. The Corporation of London will be represented by one of the senior Aldermen. The acting Chief Magistrate will proceed in State to the Cathedral from the Mansion House, attended by the ceremonial officers of the Lord Mayor's household.
We are asked to state that admission will be by ticket, for which individuals and bodies wishing to be represented should apply in writing to the Secretary, War Office (Memorial Service), Room 109, War Office, Whitehall. A limited number of tickets will be issued for the choir and choir gallery, for which applications should be made to the Secretary, at the Chapter House. No admission cards will be posted to individual applicants before this opening.
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Alderman Sir James Ritchie, acting for the Lord Mayor, will represent the Corporation of London at the memorial service for Miss Florence Nightingale to be held in St. Paul's Cathedral tomorrow. He will be accompanied by Mr. Sheriff Slazengor and will drive in State from the Mansion House, attended by the Swordbearer, the Macebearer, and the City Marshal.
It has been decided that the memorial service shall not be of a military character, but officers on the active list representing units will attend in uniform. In addition to those who will be present on behalf of members of the Royal Family and of the War Office and the Army, nearly all the London hospitals and many nursing societies will send representatives. The desire of the nursing profession to honour the most distinguished member of their calling is indicated by the large demand for tickets received from private nurses throughout the country.
The War Office has already received requests for over 2,000 tickets from members of the general public, including many from Americans present in London. We are asked to state that when the ticket-holders, who will occupy all the seating accommodation of the church, have taken their seats, or at such a moment as is possible, as many of the public as there is room for will be admitted into the side aisle. The Cathedral door will be open at about 10 o'clock, the usual morning service taking place at an earlier hour. No further application for seats can be received at the Chapter House.
At the request of the medical and nursing professions, a memorial service will be held in the Lady Chapel of Liverpool Cathedral.
A very large number of wreaths have been received at Miss Nightingale's home in South Street, Park Lane, including one from the Army Council, and another from survivors of the Balaclava Charge. It is specially desired that Miss Nightingale's wish for a private funeral, explicitly expressed both during her lifetime and in her will, shall be strictly observed by the public. The body will be removed tomorrow, and the funeral will take place in the afternoon at East Wellow.
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"A Former Vicar of Wellow" in correcting the statement that the burial-place of the Nightingale family is at West Wellow, writes:
The parish of Wellow lies between Romsey and the New Forest. Though one parish in Winchester Diocese, it is situated in two counties—one half, East Wellow, in Hampshire, the other, West Wellow, in Wilts. Embly Park, Florence Nightingale's home, the church and vicerage are all in East Wellow, and therefore in Hampshire. Hampshire folk are proud to think that in their county was the home of Florence Nightingale's girlhood, as they will be to claim the honour that in their midst is the last resting place of one of England's most notable heroines."
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TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES.
Sir,—After years of suffering life, it is well that the remains of Florence Nightingale have been laid quietly to rest in her native country earth without any of the parade and fuss from which her noble, modest nature always recoiled.
But for the benefit of future generations, it is to be hoped that a fitting memorial might be erected by Parliament in Westminster Abbey or St. Paul's Cathedral, on sight of which many of her sex might be incited to work for others as she has done.
The first fruit of such emulation was not long in ripening; for before October 10, 1857, when General Greathead's column, en roule from the siege of Delhi to Lucknow, had a fight with the mutineers under the walls of Agra, the late Mrs. Charles Reikes, wife of the Civil Commissioner there, and other ladies, reading your accounts of the Crimean Nursing Reform, had already extemporized a hospital in the Moti Masjid (Pearl Mosque), which the military authorities were glad to avail themselves for the many wounded that day.
I feel sure that Sir Alexander Christison, Baronet, still living in Edinburgh, one of the surgeons in charge of that Agra Hospital can attest to the efficiency and devotion to nursing duties carried out by his amateur ladies amid horrible sights and sounds.
I enclose my card and will sign myself,
ONE WHOSE 23 WOUNDS WERE HEALED BY HIS NURSES IN OCTOBER, 1857.
August 20
