In addition to the miseries entailed by overcrowding, the men lying on the floors of the corridors were tormented by vermin and their limbs attacked by rats as they lay helpless in their pain.
The immediate surroundings of the hospital were a hotbed of pestilence; Miss Nightingale counted six dogs lying under the windows in a state of decomposition. Add to this that in this vast caravanserai of wounded, sick, and dying men there was no proper provision for washing, no kitchens, culinary conveniences, or cooks suitable for hospital needs, and no sanitation, and some conception may be formed of the Augean stable which the Lady-in-Chief and her nurses had to cleanse, and the chaos out of which order was to be brought.
It is not altogether surprising that the doctors and hospital authorities did not immediately welcome the very unique band of sisters who had come to their assistance. These already overwrought gentlemen were disposed to think that the ladies would prove a greater hindrance than help. In those days it was regarded as unavoidable that a soldier should suffer, and humanitarian attempts to lessen the sufferings were considered sentimental and effeminate.
Possibly some of the younger medical men thought that the rats which infested the hospital would prove the needed scare to the newly arrived nurses. Of course it was held that the most strong-minded women would fly at the approach of a mouse: what therefore would be the effect of a rat? But this idea was dispelled when it was known that the Lady-in-Chief had fearlessly dislodged a rat from above the bed of one of the nurses with an umbrella. The sheds where the sisters sorted the stores were over-run with the pests. “Our home rats,” said one of them, “would run if you ‘hushed’ them; but you might ‘hush’ away, and the Scutari rats would not take the least notice.”
Only twenty-four hours after the arrival of Miss Nightingale at Scutari the wounded from the battle of Inkerman began to arrive in appalling numbers, and soon every inch of room in the General and in the Barrack Hospitals was filled with sufferers. Many of the men had indeed no other resting-place than the muddy ground outside. The Lady-in-Chief had had no time to initiate reform, collect stores, or get any plans for the relief of the patients into working order before this fearful avalanche of wounded soldiery came upon her.
BOULOGNE FISHERWOMEN CARRYING THE LUGGAGE OF MISS NIGHTINGALE AND HER NURSES.
[To face p. 128.
It was the testing moment of her life. Had Florence Nightingale failed at this crisis in personal endurance, or in power to inspire her subordinates with a like courage, her mission would have sunk into a benevolent futility. She and her nurses might have run hither and thither smoothing pillows, administering gruel, and doing other kind and womanly service, but grateful as that would be to the poor fellows in their extreme misery, it would not have remedied the root of the evil. The Lady-in-Chief had to look beyond the present moment, though not neglectful of its demands, to the more important future, and institute a system of nursing reform which should make such scenes as she now witnessed impossible. It was her ability to do this which lifted Florence Nightingale into such a supreme position.
The attention and praises bestowed on her during the Crimean period roused a little jealousy and resentment in some quarters. Other women engaged in nursing the sick soldiers possibly thought that they had made equal personal sacrifices with Miss Nightingale—some indeed gave their life in the cause. Others again, returning to a life of seclusion after toiling through the arduous nursing of the campaign, might perhaps have felt some injustice that one name alone rang through the land, while others who also had borne the heat and burden of the day remained unhonoured and unsung. No one would wish to exempt from due praise even the humblest of that “Angel Band” who worked with Florence Nightingale and still less would she, but in every great cause there is the initiating genius who stands in solitary grandeur above the rank and file of followers.