July 26, 2025 • 32 mins
Explore the extraordinary life of Florence Nightingale through the eyes of renowned journalist and author, Sarah Tooley. Known for her biographies, including that of Queen Victoria, Tooley provides a captivating insight into Nightingales life. Published originally in 1904, the biography details the life of Nightingale, hailed as the founder of modern nursing. Beyond nursing, Nightingale was an accomplished statistician, social reformer, feminist, and author. This comprehensive biography is as riveting as it is educational, with Tooleys expert storytelling making it a must-listen.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Chapter twenty one of the Life of Florence Nightingale by
Sarah Tully. The Sleeprivox recording is in the public domain.
The Soldier's Friend at home, ill health, unremitting toil founds
Nightingale training school at Saint Thomas's Hospital, Army Reform, Death
of Lord Herbert of Lee, Palmerston and Gladstone pay tributes
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to Miss Nightingale. Interesting letters, advises in American War and
Franco German War. Her heart it means good, for no
bounty shall take. She'd lay down her life for the
poor soldier's sake. She prays for the dying. She gives
peace to the brave. She feels that a soldier has
a soul to be saved the wounded. They love her
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as it has been seen. She's the soldier's preserver. They
call her their queen. May God give her strength and
her heart never fail. One of Heaven's best gifts is
Miss Nightingale. Ballid of the time. After Miss Nightingale's return
from the Crimea, it was expected that she would become
the active leader of the nursing movement, which her brilliant
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example had initiated. We intend to be merciless to Miss
Nightingale in the future, said mister Sidney Herbert, and see
that her abilities are not allowed to slumber. The diamond
has shown itself and must not be allowed to return
to the mine. Miss Nightingale must be chained to the
ore for the rest of her life. It is hers
to raise the system of nursing to a pitch of
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efficiency never before known. Gladly, indeed, would Miss Nightingale have
started on the great work of nursing reform had her
health permitted. The spirit was more than willing, it was
eager to start, but the flesh was weak. It was
hoped that a few months rest would restore her health,
and that she would herself be able to organize an
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institute for the training of hospital nurses, to which purpose
she proposed to devote the Nightingale Fund. Unfortunately, as time passed,
it became apparent that the malady from which she suffered
was increasing, and that she would never again be able
to lead her old active life. It was indeed a
hard cross to bear for a woman comparatively young and
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with a mind full of humanitarian projects, and as the
first years of waiting passed, Florence Nightingale drank deep of
the cup of life's disappointments, but she faced the situation
with noble resignation. All through the land were brave fellows
who had returned from the war maimed or shattered in health,
and the soldier's nurse showed the soldier's heroism in the
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service of her country. But though compelled to be a recluse,
not a day of Miss Nightingale's time was passed unoccupied work. Work. Ever,
work was her great panacea. She spent a good deal
of her time in London, for she liked to be
in the hum of things and within easy communication of
kindred spirits in the great city. Her sick crew might
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have passed for an adjunct of the War Office, so
filled was it with schemes for army hospital reform and
communications from all sorts and conditions of soldiers. Whenever Tommy
had a grievance, he wrote to Miss Nightingale. She was
still his lady in chief and invested in his mind
with unlimited power and influence. And to some extent he
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was not mistaken. The war authorities had such a profound
belief in Miss Nightingale's judgment and discrimination that any recommendation
made by her received attention. She was able to render
help to deserving men with regard to their pensions, and
in procuring civil occupation for the maimed and disabled, while
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she was an ever helpful friend to the widows and orphans,
and by her influence obtained grants from the Patriotic Fund
for many destitute soldiers families. The amount of work of
this kind which Miss Nightingale did in the year succeeding
the war is incalculable. When in eighteen fifty four her
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name had first come before the public, nothing was known
of Miss Nightingale. But now that it was understood that
she was the daughter of a rich and influential gentleman,
she was overwhelmed with begging letters. These increased to such
an extent that she was forced to make a public
protest in the Times and state her inability to reply
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to the letters which poured in upon her. However, let
it be stated to the honor of the Army that
not a single begging letter for money was ever sent
to Miss Nightingale by a British soldier. During the first
years of her illness, Miss Nightingale still hoped against hope
that she might be sufficiently restored to health as to
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be able to take active steps for the formation of
an institute for nurses, and in eighteen fifty nine it
was still thought by the Committee that she would eventually
be able to administer the Nightingale Fund, and it agreed
to hold the scheme in abeyance. At this time, the
sum subscribed and the accumulated interest amounted to forty eight
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thousand pounds. After another year had passed and her health
showed no signs of improvement, Miss Nightingale entered into an
arrangement by which she placed the money in the hands
of trustees for the training of hospital nurses. The net
income of the fund amounted to one thousand, four hundred
twenty six pounds, and a council was named to administer it.
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Miss Nightingale, to whom the fund had been a personal
gift from the nation, only reserved to herself the power
to give advice. The Honorable Sidney Herbert, shortly to become
Lord Herbert of Lee, was the guiding spirit of the council.
It was arranged, with Miss Nightingale's approval, to devote two
thirds of the income to the maintenance and instruction of
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nurses at Saint Thomas's Hospital, the probationers engaging to take
service in public hospitals and infirmaries. The remaining third was
to be spent at King's College Hospital for the maintenance
and instruction of midwifery nurses, the want of whom was
at that time much felt in the villages of England.
The movement thus begun by Florence Nightingale for the systematic
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training of lay hospital nurses was first established at Old
Saint Thomas's Hospital, near London Bridge in eighteen sixty. This
hospital was one of the oldest foundations in the country,
having been first established in twelve thirteen as an almary
or hospital in connection with the Priory of Bermondsey. It
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was later assigned for the use of the poor. At
the dissolution of the monasteries, Saint Thomas's was surrendered to
Henry the As It then had forty beds for poor people,
a master, six brethren and three lay sisters. Later it
was enlarged and opened as a hospital for the sick
poor under the patronage of the young King Edward the sixth.
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During the period of the Restoration, it was used as
a military hospital and is mentioned in this connection by
Peeps in his diary. In seventeen thirty two, it was
rebuilt and the grand entrance made from Wellington Street, Southwark.
It is interesting to find that at this period each
ward of the hospital was under the care of a
sister and two or three nurses. In selecting Saint Thomas's
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for the home and training school of her pioneer nurses,
Miss Nightingale was carrying on the traditions of the hospital
as nursing sisters had been associated with it from early times.
It also specially commended itself to her sympathies as being
one of the oldest institutions in the Kingdom where the
sick poor could be relieved. Later, the hospital was rebuilt
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in palatial style on its present site on the Thames Embankment,
and the Nightingale Training Home became a part of the
new hospital. Meantime, an upper floor in a new wing
of old Saint Thomas's was arranged as the quarters for
the Nightingale nurses. There was a separate bedroom for each probationer,
a common sitting room and two rooms for the sister
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in charge. In May eighteen sixty candidates were advertised for
and on June fifteenth, the first fifteen probationers were admitted.
They were under the authority of the Matron and subject
to the rules of the hospital. They were provided with
board and lodging, received a salary of ten pounds during
the first year of their probation and were to serve
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as assistant nurses in the wards and receive instruction from
the sisters and medical officers. At the end of a year,
those who passed examination were certified as nurses and entered
into hospital work. The first superintendent of the Nightingale Training
School was missus Wardroper. During the first year of the experiment,
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four probationers were dismissed and others received in their places.
Out of those who were placed on the register as
certified nurses, six received appointments in Saint Thomas's and two
entered workhouse infirmaries. It was an anxious year for Miss Nightingale,
and many heartfelt prayers went up from her sick room
that the work might be successful, while she encouraged the
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young probationers by friendly chats and advice. The council considered
the result of the first year satisfactory and the scheme
continued to steadily work. It is clear, however, that the
girls of England were not then all mad to be nurses.
The profession had not become fashionable. Missus Grundy still shook
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her head over young females nursing in hospitals, and feared
wholesale elopements with medical students. Parents were afraid of infection.
The fastidious thought attendance upon the sick poor incompatible with
the feelings of a lady. And there was the conventional
idea that it was derogatory to the position of a
gentlewoman to enter a wage earning profession. Miss Nightingale fought
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steadily and patiently against criticism and prejudice, and now and
again from her sick room came stirring appeals to the
young womanhood of England that they would regard the nursing
of the sick as the noblest work to which they
could devote themselves. We hear so much of idle hands
and unsatisfied hearts, she wrote, And nowhere more than in England.
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All England is ringing with the cry for woman's work
and woman's mission. Why are there so few to do
the work? The remunerative employment is there, and in plenty.
The want is the women fit to take it. Miss
Nightingale then goes on to explain the kind of training
given to her nurses at Saint Thomas's. And although this
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was written in the first stage of the work, when
she was asking for recruits, it remains the basis upon
which the Nightingale Training School in the present palatial Saint
Thomas's Hospital is conducted. We require, she writes, that a
woman be sober, honest, truthful, without which there is no
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foundation on which to build. We train her in habits
of punctuality, quietness, trustworthiness, personal neatness. We teach her how
to manage the concerns of a large ward or establishment.
We train her in dressing wounds and other injuries, and
in performing all those minor operations which nurses are called
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upon day and night to undertake. We teach her how
to manage helpless patience in regard to moving, changing feeding temperature,
and the prevention of bed sores. She has to make
and apply bandages, lying splints, and the like. She must
know how to make beds with as little disturbance as
possible to their inmates. She has instructed how to wait
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at operations, and as to the kind of aid the
surgeon requires. At her hands. She has taught cooking for
the sick, the principle on which sick words ought to
be cleansed, aired and warmed, the manager of convalescence, and
how to observe sick and maimed patients so as to
give an intelligent and truthful account to the physician or
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surgeon in regard to the progress of cases in the
intervals between visits, a much more difficult thing than is
generally supposed. We do not seek to make medical women,
but simply nurses acquainted with the principle with which they
are required constantly to apply at the bedside. For the
future superintendent. Is added a course of instruction in the
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administration of a hospital, including of course, the linen arrangements,
and what else is necessary for a matron to be
conversant with. There are those who think that all this
is intuitive in women, that they are born so, or
at least that it comes to them without training. To such,
we say, by all means, send us as many such
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geniuses as you can, for we are sorely in want
of them. While Miss Nightingale was thus pilot nursing reform
in the country and endeavoring to enlist recruits. She was
also actively engaged in assisting the Honorable Sidney Herbert in
carrying out his important schemes for the improvement of the
condition of the soldier, a work to which mister Herbert
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devoted himself most strenuously in the last years of his life.
Up to the period of the Crimean War, the sanitary
condition of the soldier was utterly neglected. He was, as
a general rule, left to his chance at home in barracks,
He was ill lodged and ill fed, and during active
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service was practically uncared for. He was a constant victim
to preventable disease by reason of unhealthy camps and ill
managed and defective hospitals. Fever and dysentery slew their tens
of thousands. The mortality returns showed a deplorable death rate.
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Seventeen out of every thousand soldiers died annually at home,
as against eight in every thousand of civilians. It was
calculated at this period that of every two soldiers who died,
one died from causes which a proper attention to his
surroundings would have removed. Miss Nightingale had probably the best
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first hand knowledge of any person in the country of
the ills to which the soldiers in camp and hospital
were subjected during active warfare, and the wealth of her
experience and knowledge were given to mister Sidney Herbert when
he started on his campaign of reform. We have already
seen the marvelous change which Miss Nightingale had been instrumental
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in bringing about in the military hospitals in the East,
and the useful work she had accomplished during the last
months in the Crimea by providing useful occupation and recreation
for convalescent soldiers and the men in camp, and by
furthering reforms in the cooking and diet of the soldiers.
The war was ended, the army was home again, and
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now it remained to see that the men who took
up arms for their country should have their lives protected
by the ordinary rules of health and sanitation, and that
they should be educated encouraged to live like self respecting
citizens of the empire for which they fought, and that
their wives and children should be cared for. Our heroine
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was not actuated by mere passing emotions easily roused and
is readily quieted. Florence Nightingale had sacrificed her own health
to cure the ills arising from the soldier's neglected condition,
and now turned her attention to prevention. The horrors of
the Crimean War impelled Sidney Herbert to concentrate his attention
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on army reform, a matter upon which he had been
engaged before the outbreak of hostilities. Now he returned to
it with redoubled vigor. Barracks as well as hospitals, must
be reorganized, the soldier preserved in health health as well
as tended in sickness. There must be good sanitary regulations,
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improved military cookery, and the soldier must have some enjoyment
in life. Mister Sidney Herbert had to endure his share
of blame with the other members of Lord Aberdeen's government
for the terrible sufferings of the troops during the Crimean War,
but for which in the light of history, no one
seemed less to blame than he. If blamed there was,
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and he atoned for it now by a long penance
of work for the good of the soldier. For every
man who had perished in those bitter trenches before Sebastopol
died in the ill fed camps of hunger or disease,
or groaned his life away in the crowded and pestilential hospitals.
Sidney Herbert saved at least the life of one British
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soldier by his labors. He was the mainspring of the
Royal Commission, which, after the return of the troops from
the Crimea, was appointed to inquire into the sanitary condition
of the Army. And on his suggestion and with his assistance,
four supplementary commissions were issued on the subjects of hospital
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and barracks, Army Medical Department, Army Medical Statistics, and on
a medical school at Chatham. And he drafted the Code
of Regulations for the Army Medical Department, which appeared in
October eighteen fifty nine. With the return of Lord Palmerston
to power in the summer of that year, Sidney Herbert
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again took office as Secretary for War. He now labored
more assiduously than ever in army reform and in the
furthering of those schemes which he had been compelled to
abandon on the outbreak of hostilities. To his efforts were
due to constitution of the militia, the reconstruction of the
artillery system, the amalgamation of the Indian and the General forces,
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and the consolidation of what were then the new volunteers.
At Aldershot, he established instruction in barrack and hospital cookery,
and in place of that peculiar method which required that
the soldier should fit his foot to the boot, had
the machinery of the boot factory constructed to secure a
variety of sizes to suit different feet, thereby adding to
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the comfort and marching power of the troops. Sidney Herbert
began the overwhelming task of reorganizing the War Office, but
the strain of work unfortunately compelled him to retire from
active official position, and in eighteen fifty nine he accepted
a peerage and entered the House of Lords as Baron
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Herbert of Lee. Lord Herbert still continued his efforts on
behalf of bettering the condition of the soldier morally and physically,
but his beneficent career was soon to be cut short,
to the deep regret of all classes in the country.
Lord Herbert of Lee died on August second, eighteen sixty one,
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at Wilton House, Salisbury. Just before his death, he had
reformed the Hospital Corps, and on the very day on
which he died, he saw the opening of the General
Hospital at Woolwich, which had been planned under his auspices,
as a model of what a military hospital should be.
It was ultimately transformed into the present magnificent building, on
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which Queen Victoria fittingly bestowed the name of the Herbert Hospital.
Next to his devoted widow and children. There was no
one who felt more keenly the loss of Lord Herbert
of Lee than Florence Nightingale. To his inspiration and support,
she owed in great measure the success of her mission
to the Eastern hospitals, and since her return she had
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labored with him to promote the betterment of the soldier's condition.
How much the Nation really owes to Miss Nightingale for
her labors in the sanitary and educational reform of the
Army during the years eighteen fifty seven sixty, in which
though a prisoner in her sick room, she toiled with
Lord Herbert, will not be known until the private records
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of that period are published. At the request of the
War Office, she drew up an exhaustive and confidential report
on the working of the Army Medical Department in the
crimea which materially assisted in the reorganization of the medical
branch of the service then taking place. In writing on
the sanitary condition of the Army in the Westminster Review
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for January eighteen fifty nine, Lord Herbert frequently quotes the
opinions of Miss Nightingale based on her experiences of the
defects of the Military Hospital's nursing system and mentions her
recommendations for reform. Her services and advice were not only
highly valued by Lord Herbert, but they were acknowledged by
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the first statesmen of the day in the tributes paid
to the memory of Lord Herbert at the time of
his death, the name of Florence Nightingale was coupled with
his in the work of army reform. At a meeting
held in Willis's Rooms on November twenty eighth, eighteen sixty one,
to consider the erection of a memorial in London to
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Lord Herbert of Lee, Lord Palmerston, then Prime Minister, speaking
of the work in army reform accomplished by Lord Herbert
with the assistance of the Duke of Cambridge, Commander in Chief,
said there were not only two, there was a third
engaged in these honorable exertions, and Miss Nightingale, though a
volunteer in the service, acted with all the zeal of
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a volunteer, and was greatly assistant. Mister Gladstone, then Chancellor
of the Exchequer, followed with a similar appreciation. Referring to
the above remarks of Lord Palmerston, he said, my noble friend,
who moved the first resolution, directed attention to one name
in particular that ought never to be mentioned with any
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elaborated tempt at eulogy. For the name of Miss Nightingale,
by its own unaided power, becomes a talisman to all
her fellow countrymen. Mister Gladstone then proceeded to summarize the
work of Lord Herbert in which our heroine had so
signally helped. To him, we owe the Commission for inquiry
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into barracks and hospitals to him. We are indebted for
the reorganization of the Medical Department of the Army. To him,
we owe the Commission of Inquiry into and remodeling the
medical education of the Army. And lastly, we owe him
the commission for presenting to the public the vital statistics
of the Army in such a form from time to
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time that the great and living facts of the subjects
are brought to view. Such was the perfect knight, the
gallant gentleman, and the high souled reformer, whose loss Florence
Nightingale now deplored. From her sick room, she followed with
interest the schemes to honour his memory. It was proposed
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to erect his statue outside the War Office in palmal
and to endow an exhibition of gold medals in connection
with the Army Medical School at Chatham, which had been
founded under his auspices. At Salisbury, the city where the
names of Lord and Lady Herbert were household words, as
benefactor to the sick and distressed, a public meeting was
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held to promote a fund for erecting a bronze statue
to Lord Herbert and for the support of a convalescent
hospital at Charmouth as a branch of the Salisbury hospital
to which he had been such a liberal benefactor. Miss
Nightingale also had the satisfaction of knowing that the reforms
at which she had labored with him were already bearing fruit.
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This was being demonstrated in China at this time eighteen
sixty sixty four, where General Gordon was waging war against
the Taiping rebellion, while during the first seven months of
the crimee In war, the mortality amongst the soldiers had
been at the alarming rate of sixty one in every
hundred per annum, exclusive of those killed in action. In
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the Chinese campaign, when the army had been sent half
across the globe to an unhealthy country, the death rate,
including the wounded, was little more than three men in
every hundred per annum, while the loss of those killed
in action amounted to less than six men in every
hundred per annum. But now her chief was gone, cut
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off in the prime of his manhood and at the
pinnacle of public estimation and usefulness, and Miss Nightingale's usually
hopeful spirit grew despondent. The following letter, written fourteen months
after Lord Herbert's death, reveals how sorely she was suffering
in body and in spirit. She writes, October twenty second,
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eighteen sixty one, Dear Sir, in answer to your kind inquiry,
I have passed the last four years between four walls,
only varied to other four walls once a year, and
I believe there is no prospect but of my health
becoming ever worse and worse till the hour of my release.
But I have never ceased during one waking hour since
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my return to England five years ago, laboring for the
welfare of the Army at home as I did abroad,
and no hour have I given to friendship or amusement
during that time, but all to work to that work.
The death of my dear Chief Sidney Herbert has been
a fatal blow. I assure you it is always support
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giving strength to me to find a national sympathy with
the army and our efforts for it, such a sympathy
as you express, believe me, dear sir, Sincerely, Yours, Florence Nightingale.
Happily the succeeding years brought some improvement in health, and
the gloomy forebodings of the letter were not realized. After
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her recovery from the shock occasioned by Lord Herbert's death,
Miss Nightingale continued to give her experience and advice in
matters of army and hospital reform, both at home and abroad.
She had correspondence in all parts of the globe, and
the builders of hospitals and pioneers in nursing and sanitary
reforms all drew from the fount of her practical knowledge,
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she took a deep and sympathetic interest in the Italian
War for liberty, for she had herself been born on
Italian soil and felt something of the patriot spirit as
she followed the progress of the Italian arms, both in
the struggle for independence and in the Austro Prussian War
of eighteen sixty six. In response to her request in
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eighteen sixty six from Cavaliere Sebastiano Fenzi, one of the
Committee for organizing a system of volunteer assistance to the
Hospital Department of the Italian Army, that she would come
to Florence to give advice and personal Superintendenceingale replied, giving
a lengthy series of recommendations. We quote the conclusion of
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the letter for its personal interest. Thus far writes Miss Nightingale.
I have given dry advice as dryly as I could.
But you must permit me to say that if there
is anything I could do for you at any time,
and you would command me, I should esteem it the
greatest honor and pleasure. I am a hopeless, invalid, entirely
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a prisoner to my room and overwhelmed with business. Otherwise,
how gladly would I answer to your call and come
and do my little best for you in the dear
city where I was born. If the giving my miserable
life could hasten your success but by half an hour,
how gladly would I give it. But you will not
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want for success or for martyrs, or for volunteers, or
for soldiers. Our old General, Lord Clyde, he is dead now,
was standing at the port of Balaklav when eleven years
ago the Italian BERSARLIERI was standing, and he turned round
and said to his companion, a man high in office,
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I wish to hide my face. I blush for ourselves
when I see the perfect way in which those glorious
troops are brought up to their work. And what have
not the Italians done since in those eleven years the
work of almost eleven centuries? I too remember the Italian
Sardinian hospitals on the heights of Balaklava, and their admirable government.
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And since then, what has not the progress been? I
wish you God's speed with my whole heart, and by
that you will believe me, sir, your ever faithful servant.
Florence Nightingale, Cavalierre, Sebastiano Fenzi Florence. Miss Nightingale, would certainly
have been cheered in her sick room if she could
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have seen the enthusiasm and emotion excited in her native
city when her letter was read to the people the
United States, which today has such an efficient organization for
the succor of the sick and wounded soldiers. Owes the
inception of the movement to Florence Nightingale. When the American
Civil War broke out in eighteen sixty. Her name had
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become a talisman not only to her fellow countrymen, but
to English speaking people all over the world, and to
her example the women of the United States looked when
their land became devastated by war. Soon after the outbreak
of hostilities, women in the leading cities of the States
formed themselves into working parties to provide lint and bandages
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in suitable clothing for the suffering soldiery. But as the
colossal needs of the regiments being formed all over the
United States became apparent, a special Sanitary Commission was at
the instance of various medical and relief associations founded by
the Secretary of War to deal with with the sick
and wounded in hospital and camp. Hundreds of women volunteered
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as nurses, and in time a most efficient organization was
built up. The observations and advice of Miss Nightingale were
continually laid before this commission, and her name became almost
as much a household word in the States as at home.
She was regarded as the great friend of the American
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soldiers and the beneficent genius of their hospitals. Had Miss
Nightingale been in a more robust state of health, there
is little doubt that she would have visited America during
this great crisis to give personal help in the initial
work of the establishment of army nursing. About this period. Also,
the seed of her example bore fruit in the establishment
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of the Red Cross Society, the branches of which today
cover the civilized world. The honor of the inception belongs
to Monsieur Henri Dunant, a citizen of Geneva, who, appalled
by the fearful carnage and disease among the soldiery in
the Italian campaign, succeeded in drawing together an international congress
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at the city of Geneva on October twenty sixth, eighteen
sixty three, to consider how a neutral body might be
formed for the relief of the wounded in battle. The
result of Henri Dunant's grand scheme was the extension of
the work begun by Florence Nightingale in the Crimea over
the entire continent of Europe, by means of Red Cross societies, which,
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acting close relationship with their respective governments and in conjunction
with the army. The work thus begun spread rapidly when
that most sanguinary struggle of modern times, the Franco German War,
broke out in eighteen seventy. During that period, Miss Nightingale's
advice was repeatedly sought, and she was specially appealed to
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by the German authorities when organizing their medical and nursing corps.
End of Chapter twenty one.
Chapter twenty one of the Life of Florence Nightingale by
Sarah Tully. The Sleeprivox recording is in the public domain.
The Soldier's Friend at home, ill health, unremitting toil founds
Nightingale training school at Saint Thomas's Hospital, Army Reform, Death
of Lord Herbert of Lee, Palmerston and Gladstone pay tributes
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to Miss Nightingale. Interesting letters, advises in American War and
Franco German War. Her heart it means good, for no
bounty shall take. She'd lay down her life for the
poor soldier's sake. She prays for the dying. She gives
peace to the brave. She feels that a soldier has
a soul to be saved the wounded. They love her
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as it has been seen. She's the soldier's preserver. They
call her their queen. May God give her strength and
her heart never fail. One of Heaven's best gifts is
Miss Nightingale. Ballid of the time. After Miss Nightingale's return
from the Crimea, it was expected that she would become
the active leader of the nursing movement, which her brilliant
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example had initiated. We intend to be merciless to Miss
Nightingale in the future, said mister Sidney Herbert, and see
that her abilities are not allowed to slumber. The diamond
has shown itself and must not be allowed to return
to the mine. Miss Nightingale must be chained to the
ore for the rest of her life. It is hers
to raise the system of nursing to a pitch of
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efficiency never before known. Gladly, indeed, would Miss Nightingale have
started on the great work of nursing reform had her
health permitted. The spirit was more than willing, it was
eager to start, but the flesh was weak. It was
hoped that a few months rest would restore her health,
and that she would herself be able to organize an
(01:55):
institute for the training of hospital nurses, to which purpose
she proposed to devote the Nightingale Fund. Unfortunately, as time passed,
it became apparent that the malady from which she suffered
was increasing, and that she would never again be able
to lead her old active life. It was indeed a
hard cross to bear for a woman comparatively young and
(02:18):
with a mind full of humanitarian projects, and as the
first years of waiting passed, Florence Nightingale drank deep of
the cup of life's disappointments, but she faced the situation
with noble resignation. All through the land were brave fellows
who had returned from the war maimed or shattered in health,
and the soldier's nurse showed the soldier's heroism in the
(02:40):
service of her country. But though compelled to be a recluse,
not a day of Miss Nightingale's time was passed unoccupied work. Work. Ever,
work was her great panacea. She spent a good deal
of her time in London, for she liked to be
in the hum of things and within easy communication of
kindred spirits in the great city. Her sick crew might
(03:04):
have passed for an adjunct of the War Office, so
filled was it with schemes for army hospital reform and
communications from all sorts and conditions of soldiers. Whenever Tommy
had a grievance, he wrote to Miss Nightingale. She was
still his lady in chief and invested in his mind
with unlimited power and influence. And to some extent he
(03:26):
was not mistaken. The war authorities had such a profound
belief in Miss Nightingale's judgment and discrimination that any recommendation
made by her received attention. She was able to render
help to deserving men with regard to their pensions, and
in procuring civil occupation for the maimed and disabled, while
(03:46):
she was an ever helpful friend to the widows and orphans,
and by her influence obtained grants from the Patriotic Fund
for many destitute soldiers families. The amount of work of
this kind which Miss Nightingale did in the year succeeding
the war is incalculable. When in eighteen fifty four her
(04:06):
name had first come before the public, nothing was known
of Miss Nightingale. But now that it was understood that
she was the daughter of a rich and influential gentleman,
she was overwhelmed with begging letters. These increased to such
an extent that she was forced to make a public
protest in the Times and state her inability to reply
(04:27):
to the letters which poured in upon her. However, let
it be stated to the honor of the Army that
not a single begging letter for money was ever sent
to Miss Nightingale by a British soldier. During the first
years of her illness, Miss Nightingale still hoped against hope
that she might be sufficiently restored to health as to
(04:47):
be able to take active steps for the formation of
an institute for nurses, and in eighteen fifty nine it
was still thought by the Committee that she would eventually
be able to administer the Nightingale Fund, and it agreed
to hold the scheme in abeyance. At this time, the
sum subscribed and the accumulated interest amounted to forty eight
(05:08):
thousand pounds. After another year had passed and her health
showed no signs of improvement, Miss Nightingale entered into an
arrangement by which she placed the money in the hands
of trustees for the training of hospital nurses. The net
income of the fund amounted to one thousand, four hundred
twenty six pounds, and a council was named to administer it.
(05:30):
Miss Nightingale, to whom the fund had been a personal
gift from the nation, only reserved to herself the power
to give advice. The Honorable Sidney Herbert, shortly to become
Lord Herbert of Lee, was the guiding spirit of the council.
It was arranged, with Miss Nightingale's approval, to devote two
thirds of the income to the maintenance and instruction of
(05:52):
nurses at Saint Thomas's Hospital, the probationers engaging to take
service in public hospitals and infirmaries. The remaining third was
to be spent at King's College Hospital for the maintenance
and instruction of midwifery nurses, the want of whom was
at that time much felt in the villages of England.
The movement thus begun by Florence Nightingale for the systematic
(06:16):
training of lay hospital nurses was first established at Old
Saint Thomas's Hospital, near London Bridge in eighteen sixty. This
hospital was one of the oldest foundations in the country,
having been first established in twelve thirteen as an almary
or hospital in connection with the Priory of Bermondsey. It
(06:36):
was later assigned for the use of the poor. At
the dissolution of the monasteries, Saint Thomas's was surrendered to
Henry the As It then had forty beds for poor people,
a master, six brethren and three lay sisters. Later it
was enlarged and opened as a hospital for the sick
poor under the patronage of the young King Edward the sixth.
(06:59):
During the period of the Restoration, it was used as
a military hospital and is mentioned in this connection by
Peeps in his diary. In seventeen thirty two, it was
rebuilt and the grand entrance made from Wellington Street, Southwark.
It is interesting to find that at this period each
ward of the hospital was under the care of a
sister and two or three nurses. In selecting Saint Thomas's
(07:24):
for the home and training school of her pioneer nurses,
Miss Nightingale was carrying on the traditions of the hospital
as nursing sisters had been associated with it from early times.
It also specially commended itself to her sympathies as being
one of the oldest institutions in the Kingdom where the
sick poor could be relieved. Later, the hospital was rebuilt
(07:45):
in palatial style on its present site on the Thames Embankment,
and the Nightingale Training Home became a part of the
new hospital. Meantime, an upper floor in a new wing
of old Saint Thomas's was arranged as the quarters for
the Nightingale nurses. There was a separate bedroom for each probationer,
a common sitting room and two rooms for the sister
(08:06):
in charge. In May eighteen sixty candidates were advertised for
and on June fifteenth, the first fifteen probationers were admitted.
They were under the authority of the Matron and subject
to the rules of the hospital. They were provided with
board and lodging, received a salary of ten pounds during
the first year of their probation and were to serve
(08:28):
as assistant nurses in the wards and receive instruction from
the sisters and medical officers. At the end of a year,
those who passed examination were certified as nurses and entered
into hospital work. The first superintendent of the Nightingale Training
School was missus Wardroper. During the first year of the experiment,
(08:48):
four probationers were dismissed and others received in their places.
Out of those who were placed on the register as
certified nurses, six received appointments in Saint Thomas's and two
entered workhouse infirmaries. It was an anxious year for Miss Nightingale,
and many heartfelt prayers went up from her sick room
that the work might be successful, while she encouraged the
(09:11):
young probationers by friendly chats and advice. The council considered
the result of the first year satisfactory and the scheme
continued to steadily work. It is clear, however, that the
girls of England were not then all mad to be nurses.
The profession had not become fashionable. Missus Grundy still shook
(09:32):
her head over young females nursing in hospitals, and feared
wholesale elopements with medical students. Parents were afraid of infection.
The fastidious thought attendance upon the sick poor incompatible with
the feelings of a lady. And there was the conventional
idea that it was derogatory to the position of a
gentlewoman to enter a wage earning profession. Miss Nightingale fought
(09:56):
steadily and patiently against criticism and prejudice, and now and
again from her sick room came stirring appeals to the
young womanhood of England that they would regard the nursing
of the sick as the noblest work to which they
could devote themselves. We hear so much of idle hands
and unsatisfied hearts, she wrote, And nowhere more than in England.
(10:20):
All England is ringing with the cry for woman's work
and woman's mission. Why are there so few to do
the work? The remunerative employment is there, and in plenty.
The want is the women fit to take it. Miss
Nightingale then goes on to explain the kind of training
given to her nurses at Saint Thomas's. And although this
(10:42):
was written in the first stage of the work, when
she was asking for recruits, it remains the basis upon
which the Nightingale Training School in the present palatial Saint
Thomas's Hospital is conducted. We require, she writes, that a
woman be sober, honest, truthful, without which there is no
(11:02):
foundation on which to build. We train her in habits
of punctuality, quietness, trustworthiness, personal neatness. We teach her how
to manage the concerns of a large ward or establishment.
We train her in dressing wounds and other injuries, and
in performing all those minor operations which nurses are called
(11:23):
upon day and night to undertake. We teach her how
to manage helpless patience in regard to moving, changing feeding temperature,
and the prevention of bed sores. She has to make
and apply bandages, lying splints, and the like. She must
know how to make beds with as little disturbance as
possible to their inmates. She has instructed how to wait
(11:46):
at operations, and as to the kind of aid the
surgeon requires. At her hands. She has taught cooking for
the sick, the principle on which sick words ought to
be cleansed, aired and warmed, the manager of convalescence, and
how to observe sick and maimed patients so as to
give an intelligent and truthful account to the physician or
(12:08):
surgeon in regard to the progress of cases in the
intervals between visits, a much more difficult thing than is
generally supposed. We do not seek to make medical women,
but simply nurses acquainted with the principle with which they
are required constantly to apply at the bedside. For the
future superintendent. Is added a course of instruction in the
(12:31):
administration of a hospital, including of course, the linen arrangements,
and what else is necessary for a matron to be
conversant with. There are those who think that all this
is intuitive in women, that they are born so, or
at least that it comes to them without training. To such,
we say, by all means, send us as many such
(12:53):
geniuses as you can, for we are sorely in want
of them. While Miss Nightingale was thus pilot nursing reform
in the country and endeavoring to enlist recruits. She was
also actively engaged in assisting the Honorable Sidney Herbert in
carrying out his important schemes for the improvement of the
condition of the soldier, a work to which mister Herbert
(13:16):
devoted himself most strenuously in the last years of his life.
Up to the period of the Crimean War, the sanitary
condition of the soldier was utterly neglected. He was, as
a general rule, left to his chance at home in barracks,
He was ill lodged and ill fed, and during active
(13:36):
service was practically uncared for. He was a constant victim
to preventable disease by reason of unhealthy camps and ill
managed and defective hospitals. Fever and dysentery slew their tens
of thousands. The mortality returns showed a deplorable death rate.
(13:56):
Seventeen out of every thousand soldiers died annually at home,
as against eight in every thousand of civilians. It was
calculated at this period that of every two soldiers who died,
one died from causes which a proper attention to his
surroundings would have removed. Miss Nightingale had probably the best
(14:17):
first hand knowledge of any person in the country of
the ills to which the soldiers in camp and hospital
were subjected during active warfare, and the wealth of her
experience and knowledge were given to mister Sidney Herbert when
he started on his campaign of reform. We have already
seen the marvelous change which Miss Nightingale had been instrumental
(14:38):
in bringing about in the military hospitals in the East,
and the useful work she had accomplished during the last
months in the Crimea by providing useful occupation and recreation
for convalescent soldiers and the men in camp, and by
furthering reforms in the cooking and diet of the soldiers.
The war was ended, the army was home again, and
(15:00):
now it remained to see that the men who took
up arms for their country should have their lives protected
by the ordinary rules of health and sanitation, and that
they should be educated encouraged to live like self respecting
citizens of the empire for which they fought, and that
their wives and children should be cared for. Our heroine
(15:22):
was not actuated by mere passing emotions easily roused and
is readily quieted. Florence Nightingale had sacrificed her own health
to cure the ills arising from the soldier's neglected condition,
and now turned her attention to prevention. The horrors of
the Crimean War impelled Sidney Herbert to concentrate his attention
(15:44):
on army reform, a matter upon which he had been
engaged before the outbreak of hostilities. Now he returned to
it with redoubled vigor. Barracks as well as hospitals, must
be reorganized, the soldier preserved in health health as well
as tended in sickness. There must be good sanitary regulations,
(16:05):
improved military cookery, and the soldier must have some enjoyment
in life. Mister Sidney Herbert had to endure his share
of blame with the other members of Lord Aberdeen's government
for the terrible sufferings of the troops during the Crimean War,
but for which in the light of history, no one
seemed less to blame than he. If blamed there was,
(16:29):
and he atoned for it now by a long penance
of work for the good of the soldier. For every
man who had perished in those bitter trenches before Sebastopol
died in the ill fed camps of hunger or disease,
or groaned his life away in the crowded and pestilential hospitals.
Sidney Herbert saved at least the life of one British
(16:51):
soldier by his labors. He was the mainspring of the
Royal Commission, which, after the return of the troops from
the Crimea, was appointed to inquire into the sanitary condition
of the Army. And on his suggestion and with his assistance,
four supplementary commissions were issued on the subjects of hospital
(17:11):
and barracks, Army Medical Department, Army Medical Statistics, and on
a medical school at Chatham. And he drafted the Code
of Regulations for the Army Medical Department, which appeared in
October eighteen fifty nine. With the return of Lord Palmerston
to power in the summer of that year, Sidney Herbert
(17:31):
again took office as Secretary for War. He now labored
more assiduously than ever in army reform and in the
furthering of those schemes which he had been compelled to
abandon on the outbreak of hostilities. To his efforts were
due to constitution of the militia, the reconstruction of the
artillery system, the amalgamation of the Indian and the General forces,
(17:56):
and the consolidation of what were then the new volunteers.
At Aldershot, he established instruction in barrack and hospital cookery,
and in place of that peculiar method which required that
the soldier should fit his foot to the boot, had
the machinery of the boot factory constructed to secure a
variety of sizes to suit different feet, thereby adding to
(18:19):
the comfort and marching power of the troops. Sidney Herbert
began the overwhelming task of reorganizing the War Office, but
the strain of work unfortunately compelled him to retire from
active official position, and in eighteen fifty nine he accepted
a peerage and entered the House of Lords as Baron
(18:39):
Herbert of Lee. Lord Herbert still continued his efforts on
behalf of bettering the condition of the soldier morally and physically,
but his beneficent career was soon to be cut short,
to the deep regret of all classes in the country.
Lord Herbert of Lee died on August second, eighteen sixty one,
(19:00):
at Wilton House, Salisbury. Just before his death, he had
reformed the Hospital Corps, and on the very day on
which he died, he saw the opening of the General
Hospital at Woolwich, which had been planned under his auspices,
as a model of what a military hospital should be.
It was ultimately transformed into the present magnificent building, on
(19:22):
which Queen Victoria fittingly bestowed the name of the Herbert Hospital.
Next to his devoted widow and children. There was no
one who felt more keenly the loss of Lord Herbert
of Lee than Florence Nightingale. To his inspiration and support,
she owed in great measure the success of her mission
to the Eastern hospitals, and since her return she had
(19:45):
labored with him to promote the betterment of the soldier's condition.
How much the Nation really owes to Miss Nightingale for
her labors in the sanitary and educational reform of the
Army during the years eighteen fifty seven sixty, in which
though a prisoner in her sick room, she toiled with
Lord Herbert, will not be known until the private records
(20:08):
of that period are published. At the request of the
War Office, she drew up an exhaustive and confidential report
on the working of the Army Medical Department in the
crimea which materially assisted in the reorganization of the medical
branch of the service then taking place. In writing on
the sanitary condition of the Army in the Westminster Review
(20:31):
for January eighteen fifty nine, Lord Herbert frequently quotes the
opinions of Miss Nightingale based on her experiences of the
defects of the Military Hospital's nursing system and mentions her
recommendations for reform. Her services and advice were not only
highly valued by Lord Herbert, but they were acknowledged by
(20:52):
the first statesmen of the day in the tributes paid
to the memory of Lord Herbert at the time of
his death, the name of Florence Nightingale was coupled with
his in the work of army reform. At a meeting
held in Willis's Rooms on November twenty eighth, eighteen sixty one,
to consider the erection of a memorial in London to
(21:13):
Lord Herbert of Lee, Lord Palmerston, then Prime Minister, speaking
of the work in army reform accomplished by Lord Herbert
with the assistance of the Duke of Cambridge, Commander in Chief,
said there were not only two, there was a third
engaged in these honorable exertions, and Miss Nightingale, though a
volunteer in the service, acted with all the zeal of
(21:36):
a volunteer, and was greatly assistant. Mister Gladstone, then Chancellor
of the Exchequer, followed with a similar appreciation. Referring to
the above remarks of Lord Palmerston, he said, my noble friend,
who moved the first resolution, directed attention to one name
in particular that ought never to be mentioned with any
(21:59):
elaborated tempt at eulogy. For the name of Miss Nightingale,
by its own unaided power, becomes a talisman to all
her fellow countrymen. Mister Gladstone then proceeded to summarize the
work of Lord Herbert in which our heroine had so
signally helped. To him, we owe the Commission for inquiry
(22:20):
into barracks and hospitals to him. We are indebted for
the reorganization of the Medical Department of the Army. To him,
we owe the Commission of Inquiry into and remodeling the
medical education of the Army. And lastly, we owe him
the commission for presenting to the public the vital statistics
of the Army in such a form from time to
(22:41):
time that the great and living facts of the subjects
are brought to view. Such was the perfect knight, the
gallant gentleman, and the high souled reformer, whose loss Florence
Nightingale now deplored. From her sick room, she followed with
interest the schemes to honour his memory. It was proposed
(23:04):
to erect his statue outside the War Office in palmal
and to endow an exhibition of gold medals in connection
with the Army Medical School at Chatham, which had been
founded under his auspices. At Salisbury, the city where the
names of Lord and Lady Herbert were household words, as
benefactor to the sick and distressed, a public meeting was
(23:25):
held to promote a fund for erecting a bronze statue
to Lord Herbert and for the support of a convalescent
hospital at Charmouth as a branch of the Salisbury hospital
to which he had been such a liberal benefactor. Miss
Nightingale also had the satisfaction of knowing that the reforms
at which she had labored with him were already bearing fruit.
(23:47):
This was being demonstrated in China at this time eighteen
sixty sixty four, where General Gordon was waging war against
the Taiping rebellion, while during the first seven months of
the crimee In war, the mortality amongst the soldiers had
been at the alarming rate of sixty one in every
hundred per annum, exclusive of those killed in action. In
(24:10):
the Chinese campaign, when the army had been sent half
across the globe to an unhealthy country, the death rate,
including the wounded, was little more than three men in
every hundred per annum, while the loss of those killed
in action amounted to less than six men in every
hundred per annum. But now her chief was gone, cut
(24:31):
off in the prime of his manhood and at the
pinnacle of public estimation and usefulness, and Miss Nightingale's usually
hopeful spirit grew despondent. The following letter, written fourteen months
after Lord Herbert's death, reveals how sorely she was suffering
in body and in spirit. She writes, October twenty second,
(24:52):
eighteen sixty one, Dear Sir, in answer to your kind inquiry,
I have passed the last four years between four walls,
only varied to other four walls once a year, and
I believe there is no prospect but of my health
becoming ever worse and worse till the hour of my release.
But I have never ceased during one waking hour since
(25:16):
my return to England five years ago, laboring for the
welfare of the Army at home as I did abroad,
and no hour have I given to friendship or amusement
during that time, but all to work to that work.
The death of my dear Chief Sidney Herbert has been
a fatal blow. I assure you it is always support
(25:37):
giving strength to me to find a national sympathy with
the army and our efforts for it, such a sympathy
as you express, believe me, dear sir, Sincerely, Yours, Florence Nightingale.
Happily the succeeding years brought some improvement in health, and
the gloomy forebodings of the letter were not realized. After
(25:59):
her recovery from the shock occasioned by Lord Herbert's death,
Miss Nightingale continued to give her experience and advice in
matters of army and hospital reform, both at home and abroad.
She had correspondence in all parts of the globe, and
the builders of hospitals and pioneers in nursing and sanitary
reforms all drew from the fount of her practical knowledge,
(26:23):
she took a deep and sympathetic interest in the Italian
War for liberty, for she had herself been born on
Italian soil and felt something of the patriot spirit as
she followed the progress of the Italian arms, both in
the struggle for independence and in the Austro Prussian War
of eighteen sixty six. In response to her request in
(26:44):
eighteen sixty six from Cavaliere Sebastiano Fenzi, one of the
Committee for organizing a system of volunteer assistance to the
Hospital Department of the Italian Army, that she would come
to Florence to give advice and personal Superintendenceingale replied, giving
a lengthy series of recommendations. We quote the conclusion of
(27:06):
the letter for its personal interest. Thus far writes Miss Nightingale.
I have given dry advice as dryly as I could.
But you must permit me to say that if there
is anything I could do for you at any time,
and you would command me, I should esteem it the
greatest honor and pleasure. I am a hopeless, invalid, entirely
(27:27):
a prisoner to my room and overwhelmed with business. Otherwise,
how gladly would I answer to your call and come
and do my little best for you in the dear
city where I was born. If the giving my miserable
life could hasten your success but by half an hour,
how gladly would I give it. But you will not
(27:48):
want for success or for martyrs, or for volunteers, or
for soldiers. Our old General, Lord Clyde, he is dead now,
was standing at the port of Balaklav when eleven years
ago the Italian BERSARLIERI was standing, and he turned round
and said to his companion, a man high in office,
(28:10):
I wish to hide my face. I blush for ourselves
when I see the perfect way in which those glorious
troops are brought up to their work. And what have
not the Italians done since in those eleven years the
work of almost eleven centuries? I too remember the Italian
Sardinian hospitals on the heights of Balaklava, and their admirable government.
(28:35):
And since then, what has not the progress been? I
wish you God's speed with my whole heart, and by
that you will believe me, sir, your ever faithful servant.
Florence Nightingale, Cavalierre, Sebastiano Fenzi Florence. Miss Nightingale, would certainly
have been cheered in her sick room if she could
(28:56):
have seen the enthusiasm and emotion excited in her native
city when her letter was read to the people the
United States, which today has such an efficient organization for
the succor of the sick and wounded soldiers. Owes the
inception of the movement to Florence Nightingale. When the American
Civil War broke out in eighteen sixty. Her name had
(29:19):
become a talisman not only to her fellow countrymen, but
to English speaking people all over the world, and to
her example the women of the United States looked when
their land became devastated by war. Soon after the outbreak
of hostilities, women in the leading cities of the States
formed themselves into working parties to provide lint and bandages
(29:41):
in suitable clothing for the suffering soldiery. But as the
colossal needs of the regiments being formed all over the
United States became apparent, a special Sanitary Commission was at
the instance of various medical and relief associations founded by
the Secretary of War to deal with with the sick
and wounded in hospital and camp. Hundreds of women volunteered
(30:05):
as nurses, and in time a most efficient organization was
built up. The observations and advice of Miss Nightingale were
continually laid before this commission, and her name became almost
as much a household word in the States as at home.
She was regarded as the great friend of the American
(30:25):
soldiers and the beneficent genius of their hospitals. Had Miss
Nightingale been in a more robust state of health, there
is little doubt that she would have visited America during
this great crisis to give personal help in the initial
work of the establishment of army nursing. About this period. Also,
the seed of her example bore fruit in the establishment
(30:48):
of the Red Cross Society, the branches of which today
cover the civilized world. The honor of the inception belongs
to Monsieur Henri Dunant, a citizen of Geneva, who, appalled
by the fearful carnage and disease among the soldiery in
the Italian campaign, succeeded in drawing together an international congress
(31:09):
at the city of Geneva on October twenty sixth, eighteen
sixty three, to consider how a neutral body might be
formed for the relief of the wounded in battle. The
result of Henri Dunant's grand scheme was the extension of
the work begun by Florence Nightingale in the Crimea over
the entire continent of Europe, by means of Red Cross societies, which,
(31:32):
acting close relationship with their respective governments and in conjunction
with the army. The work thus begun spread rapidly when
that most sanguinary struggle of modern times, the Franco German War,
broke out in eighteen seventy. During that period, Miss Nightingale's
advice was repeatedly sought, and she was specially appealed to
(31:54):
by the German authorities when organizing their medical and nursing corps.
End of Chapter twenty one.
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