The life of Florence Nightingale

by Sarah A. Tooley

Miss Nightingale deals in her paper with the need for drastic measures to promote rural sanitation such as drainage, proper water supply, scavenging, removal of dust and manure heaps from close proximity to the houses, and the inspection of dairies and cowsheds. In regard to the latter she writes, “No inspection exists worthy of the name.” This was in 1893, and the alarming facts about the non-inspection of rural milk supplies exposed in The Daily Chronicle in 1904 show that matters are little improved since Miss Nightingale laid an unerring finger on the defect eleven years ago.

In addition to an independent medical officer and sanitary inspector under him, “we want,” said Miss Nightingale, “a fully trained nurse for every district and a health missioner,” and she defines her idea of the duties of a missioner. These women must of course be highly qualified for their work. They should visit the homes of the people to advocate rules of health. Persuade the careful housewife, who is afraid of dirt falling on to her clean grate, to remove the sack stuffed up the unused chimney, teach the cottagers to open their windows in the most effective way for free ventilation. “It is far more difficult to get people to avoid poisoned air than poisoned water,” says Miss Nightingale, “for they drink in poisoned air all night in their bedrooms.” The mothers should be taught the value of a daily bath, the way to select nourishing food for their families, what to do till the doctor comes and after he has left.

However, the first great step for the missioner is to get the trust and friendship of the women. And this “is not made by lecturing upon bedrooms, sculleries, sties, and wells in general, but by examination of particular rooms, etc.” The missioner, above all, must not appear to “pry” into the homes, or to talk down to the women, neither should she give alms. The whole object of the recommendations was to teach people how to avoid sickness and poverty.

Miss Nightingale’s efforts to promote sanitary reforms were not confined to our own land, but extended to far-away India, a country in which she has, as we have already seen, taken a great interest. She had watched the success of some of the sanitary schemes carried out by the municipalities of large towns of India with satisfaction, but there yet remained the vast rural population for which little was done, a very serious matter indeed when we consider that ninety per cent. of the two hundred and forty millions of India dwell in small rural villages. Miss Nightingale prepared one of her “searchlight” papers on “Village Sanitation in India,” which was read before the Tropical Section of the eighth International Congress of Hygiene and Demography, held at Buda Pesth in September, 1894.

In this she considers the condition of the rural provinces of India from facts obtained by correspondence with people of authority on the spot, and deals with the defective sewage, water supply, and the difficulties arising from the insanitary habits of the people and their attachment to old customs. “Still,” she pleads, “with a gentle and affectionate people like the Hindoos much may be accomplished by personal influence. I can give a striking instance within my own knowledge. In the Bombay Presidency there was a village which had for long years been decimated by cholera. The Government had in vain been trying to ‘move’ the village. ‘No,’ they said, ‘they would not go; they had been there since the time of the Mahrattas: it was a sacred spot, and they would not move now.’

“At last, not long ago, a sanitary commissioner—dead now alas!—who by wise sympathy, practical knowledge and skill had conquered the confidence of the people, went to the Pancháyat, explained to them the case, and urged them to move to a spot which he pointed out to them as safe and accessible. By the very next morning it had all been settled as he advised.

“The Government of India is very powerful, and great things may be accomplished by official authority, but in such delicate matters affecting the homes and customs of a very conservative people almost more may be done by personal influence exercised with kindly sympathy and respect for the prejudices of others.”

The celebration of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee in 1897 was an occasion of great interest to Miss Nightingale, and in her sick-room she followed all the events of that joyous time with keen appreciation. She was delighted at the idea of making a special feature of “Nursing” in the Women’s Section of the Victorian Era Exhibition, and sent her Crimean carriage as an exhibit. All visitors to Earl’s Court will recall the throngs of sight-seers who stood all day long peering into the recesses of the old vehicle as eagerly as though they expected to still find some remnant of the wounded. There was no more popular exhibit on view, while the smiling nurses in their becoming uniforms who flitted about the Nursing Section were a living testimony to the revolution in the art of nursing which Florence Nightingale had effected. Lady George Hamilton, who had charge of this section, was in frequent consultation with Miss Nightingale while preparations were going forward.

One of the most interesting celebrations of the Diamond Jubilee year was the dinner of the Balaclava Society on the anniversary of the famous “Charge,” October 25th. After the loyal toasts, the health of Miss Nightingale was proposed by Mr. F. H. Roberts, who amid ringing cheers said, “Her name will live in the annals of England’s regiments as long as England lasts.” The company numbered one hundred and twenty, of whom sixty were survivors of the Charge.