After the departure of Mr. Macdonald, Miss Nightingale received another welcome and also an entertaining visitor in the person of M. Soyer, an expert in cooking and culinary matters generally, to offer his services at the hospitals. M. Soyer’s “campaign” was initiated in February, 1855, by the following letter to the editor of The Times:—
“Sir,—
“After carefully perusing the letter of your correspondent, dated Scutari, in your impression of Wednesday last, I perceive that, although the kitchen under the superintendence of Miss Nightingale affords so much relief, the system of management at the large one in the Barrack Hospital is far from being perfect. I propose offering my services gratuitously, and proceeding direct to Scutari at my own personal expense, to regulate that important department, if the Government will honour me with their confidence, and grant me the full power of acting according to my knowledge and experience in such matters.
“I have the honour to remain, sir,
“Your obedient servant,
“A. Soyer.”
The services of M. Soyer having been accepted, he in due course sailed for the East and arrived at Scutari in April. The gallant Frenchman was all anxiety to pay his respects to “Mademoiselle Nightingale,” and was gratified to hear that she had heard of his arrival and would be much pleased to see him. As soon as he reached the Barrack Hospital he inquired for Miss Nightingale’s apartment, and was immediately shown into what he terms “a sanctuary of benevolence.”
Upon entering the room, M. Soyer was received by the Lady-in-Chief, to whom, after the inevitable complimentary speech, he presented parcels and letters from Mr. Stafford, who had been such an indefatigable helper to Miss Nightingale in the past winter, and other friends, among them one from Harriet, Duchess of Sutherland, who strongly commended M. Soyer to Miss Nightingale as likely to be of service in the kitchen department. The Lady-in-Chief arranged to accompany her visitor in a tour of inspection, and M. Soyer thus records his impressions:—
“On my arrival I first visited, in company with Miss Nightingale and one of the medical officers, all the store-rooms, cook-houses, kitchens, and provision departments, to glean an idea of the rules, regulations, and allowances made by the authorities. Instead of there being no appropriate kitchen, as was represented by several Government employees prior to my embarkation for the East, I found ample room and space adapted for culinary purposes even upon the most elaborate and extensive scale.
“I must especially express my gratitude to Miss Nightingale, who from her extraordinary intelligence and the good organisation of her kitchen procured me every material for making a commencement, and thus saved me at least one week’s sheer loss of time, as my model kitchen did not arrive until Saturday last.”
The Lady-in-Chief found a very valuable ally in M. Soyer, who was eagerly ready to carry out her suggestions for the furtherance of various schemes for the better dietary arrangements for the sick, and who introduced new stoves and fuel and many other reforms of which she had hardly dared to dream in the first months of her work. To these new arrangements Lord William Paulet, the military Commandant, and Drs. Cummings, Menzies and Macgregor the principal medical officers, gave their entire approval, and Miss Nightingale had at length the satisfaction of seeing the culinary arrangements of the Scutari hospitals arranged on a model plan.
During his stay M. Soyer obtained a glimpse into the “ministering angel” side of the lady whose excellent business faculty had filled him with admiration as he inspected stoves and boilers and discussed rations and diets in their rounds of the kitchens. He had been spending a jovial evening in the doctors’ quarters, and in making his way at two o’clock in the morning to his own apartment, he saw, at an angle of one of the long corridors filled with sick and wounded, a group revealed in silhouette by a faint light. A dying soldier was half reclining upon his bed, at the side of which sat Florence Nightingale pencilling down his last wishes home. A sister stood at her back holding a lighted candle. The group thus outlined, like a sombre study of Rembrandt, drew M. Soyer to the spot, and for a time unseen he observed the dying man pass his watch and trinkets into those tender womanly hands of the Lady-in-Chief, and heard the laboured gasp of the man to articulate the last message to wife and children. Then approaching Miss Nightingale, M. Soyer inquired as to the complaint of her patient, when she replied in French that the poor fellow had been given up by the doctors and was not likely to last many hours, and she was noting down his last wishes for his relatives. The incident enables one to realise how manifold were Miss Nightingale’s duties and how after laborious days she gave up hours of needed rest in order to comfort the dying.