Title: The Life of Florence Nightingale, vol. 1 of 2
Author: Sir Edward Tyas Cook
Release date: July 16, 2012 [eBook #40057]
Most recently updated: October 23, 2024
Language: English
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THE LIFE OF
FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE
MACMILLAN AND CO., Limited
LONDON · BOMBAY · CALCUTTA
MELBOURNE
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
NEW YORK · BOSTON · CHICAGO
DALLAS · SAN FRANCISCO
THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd.
TORONTO
Mrs. Nightingale and her daughters
1828
from a water-colour drawing in the possession of Mrs. Cunliffe
BY
SIR EDWARD COOK
IN TWO VOLUMES
VOL. I
(1820–1861)
MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED
ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON
1913
COPYRIGHT
Men and women are divided, in relation to their papers, into hoarders and scatterers. Miss Nightingale was a hoarder, and as she lived to be 90 the accumulation of papers, stored in her house at the time of her death, was very great. The papers referring to years up to 1861 had been neatly done up by herself, and it was evident that not everything had been kept. After that date, time and strength to sort and weed had been wanting, and Miss Nightingale seems to have thrown little away. Even soiled sheets of blotting-paper, on which she had made notes in pencil, were preserved. By a Will executed in 1896 she had directed that all her letters, papers, and manuscripts, with some specific exceptions, should be destroyed. By a Codicil executed in the following year she revoked this direction, and bequeathed the letters, papers, and manuscripts to her cousin, Mr. Henry Bonham Carter. After her death the papers were sorted chronologically by his direction, and they have formed the principal foundation of this Memoir.
Of expressly autobiographical notes, Miss Nightingale left very few. At the date of the Codicil above mentioned she seems to have contemplated the probability of some authoritative record of her life; for in that year she wrote a short summary of what she called “My Responsibility to India,” detailing her relations with successive Secretaries of State, Governors-General, and other administrators. Her memory in these matters was still accurate, for the summary is fully borne out by letters and other papers of the several dates: it adds some personal details. In private letters she sometimes recounted, at later times, episodes or experiences in her life, but such references are few. Nor, except for a few years, did Miss Nightingale keep any formal diary; and during the Crimean episode she was too incessantly busy with her multitudinous duties to find time for many private notes.
The principal authority for Miss Nightingale's Life is thus the collection of papers aforesaid, and these are very copious in information. The records, in one sort or another, of her earlier years are full. The papers relating to her work during the Crimean War are voluminous, and I have supplemented the study of these by consulting the official documents concerning Miss Nightingale's mission which are preserved, among War Office papers, in the Public Record Office. Her papers relating to public affairs during the years 1856 to 1861 are also very voluminous. After the latter date she seems, as already stated, to have kept almost everything, even every advertisement, that she received. She often made notes for important letters that she sent, and sometimes kept copies of them. Of official documents, of printed memoranda, pamphlets, reports, and returns, she accumulated an immense collection. And though she was not a regular diarist, she was in the habit of jotting down on sheets of notepaper her engagements, impressions, thoughts, meditations, as also in many cases reports of conversations.
The collection of letters received by Miss Nightingale, and of her notes for letters sent by her, has been supplemented, through the kindness of many of her correspondents or their representatives, by letters which were received from her. I am more especially indebted in this respect to the care of the late Sir Douglas Galton, whose docketed collection of letters from Miss Nightingale, taken in conjunction with a long series of his letters to her, forms a main authority for much of the record of her activity in public affairs. Her letters to Julius and Mary Mohl, returned to her after the death of the latter, are, in another way, of peculiar interest. I am particularly indebted, among the lenders of letters addressed to nursing friends, to Miss Pringle and to the father of the late Mrs. Daniel Morris (Miss Rachel Williams). Miss Pringle has also favoured me with personal reminiscences.
For permission to print letters written to Miss Nightingale, I am indebted to many of her relations, friends, and correspondents, or their representatives; to so many, indeed, that I ask them to accept here a general acknowledgment. I am especially indebted to the King, who has been pleased to permit the publication of letters from Queen Victoria and some other members of the Royal Family. The German Emperor has graciously given a like permission in the case of correspondence with the Empress Frederick. The Dowager Grand Duchess (Luise) of Baden has allowed me to quote from a long series of letters addressed by her to Miss Nightingale.
Next to the letters and other papers, above described, the most valuable material for the Life of Miss Nightingale is contained in her own printed writings—many of them published, some (and these, from the biographical point of view, the most important) privately printed. In the case of the Crimean War, material under both of these heads is particularly abundant. Her published Notes on Hospitals and Notes on Nursing and other works relating to those subjects, together with her privately circulated Addresses to Probationers, supplement her private records. For her inner life, her privately printed book, Suggestions for Thought, is of special importance.
A List of Miss Nightingale's Printed Writings (whether published or privately circulated) is given at the end of the second volume (Appendix A). My purpose in compiling this List was biographical illustration, not bibliographical minuteness. I have not included every scrap from Miss Nightingale's pen which has appeared in print, but have given every piece which is directly or indirectly referred to in the Memoir, or which is of any importance. The List will, I hope, serve a double purpose. It enables me to abbreviate in the text the references to my authorities; and it provides, in chronological order, a conspectus of Miss Nightingale's varied activities, so far as they were reflected in her printed writings.
Lastly, there is much biographical material, not only in Blue-books and official reports, but in writings about Miss Nightingale. Except in the case of the Crimean War, where many eye-witnesses recorded their observations or impressions, this material is not all of great value. Throughout her subsequent life, Miss Nightingale was screened from the public gaze; a somewhat legendary figure grew up, and it is that which for the most part appears in books about her. This, however, is a subject fully dealt with in an Introductory chapter. In Appendix B I give a short List of Writings about Miss Nightingale. Here, again, the purpose is not bibliographical. There is a great mass of such writing, and a complete list would have been altogether outside the scope of a biography. I have included only first-hand authorities or such other books, etc., as for one reason or another (explained in the notes upon each item) seemed relevant to the Memoir. This second List also serves the purpose of simplifying references in the text.
In a third Appendix (C) I have enumerated the principal portraits of Miss Nightingale. Notes on those reproduced in this book will there be found. I am indebted to the kindness of Sir William Richmond and Sir Harry Verney for the inclusion of the portrait which forms the frontispiece to the second volume, and to Mrs. Cunliffe for the frontispiece to the present volume.
To Miss Nightingale's executors I am indebted for the confidence which they have shown in entrusting her Papers to my discretion. A biography is worth nothing unless it is sincere. The aim of the present book has been to tell the truth about the subject of it, and I have done my work under no conscious temptation to suppress, exaggerate, extenuate, or distort. From Miss Nightingale's executors, and from other of her friends and relations, I have received help and information which has been of the greatest assistance. More especially I am indebted to her cousin, Mrs. Vaughan Nash, who has been good enough to read my book, both in manuscript and in proof, and who has favoured me throughout with valuable information, corrections, suggestions, and criticisms. This obligation makes it the more incumbent upon me to add that for any faults in the book, whether of commission or of omission, I alone must bear the blame.
| PAGE | |
| Introductory | xxiii |
| PART I | |
| ASPIRATION (1820–1854) | |
| CHAPTER I | |
| CHILDHOOD AND EDUCATION | |
| (1820–1839) | |
| Name, ancestry, and parentage. II. Her father's circumstances—Her early homes—Lea Hurst (Derbyshire)—Mrs. Gaskell's description—Embley Park (Hampshire). III. Early years—Country life—Domestic interests—A morbid strain. IV. Mr. Nightingale's education of his daughters—History, the classics, philosophy—Anecdotes of Florence's supposed early vocation to nursing—The date of her “call to God”. (1837). V. The Grand Tour (1837–9)—Interest in social and political conditions—Italian refugees at Geneva—Talks with Sismondi—Visit to Florence—Gaieties and music. VI. A winter in Paris (1838–9)—Friendship with Mary Clarke (Madame Mohl)—Madame Récamier's salon. Social “temptations” | 3 |
| CHAPTER II | |
| HOME LIFE | |
| (1839–1845) | |
| A struggle for freedom. Life in London—Music—The Bedchamber Plot. II. Country-house life—The charm of Embley—Contrast between Florence and her sister. III. The family circle—Florence's “boy”—Florence as “Emergency Man”—Her old nurse—Letter to Miss Clarke on the death of M. Fauriel—Theatricals at Waverley Abbey—Florence as stage-manager. IV. Friends and neighbours—Lord Palmerston—Louisa Lady Ashburton—Mrs. Bracebridge. V. Florence's conversation—Social attractiveness—Personal appearance: descriptions by Lady Lovelace and Mrs. Gaskell. VI. Dissatisfaction in social life—Desultoriness of a girl's life at home—The misery of being read aloud to—Housekeeping. VII. Increasing sense of a vocation—Private studies—Thoughts of nursing—A first dash for liberty (1845): failure | 23 |
| CHAPTER III | |
| THE SPIRITUAL LIFE | |
| Dejection. Friendship with Miss Nicholson: religious experiences and speculations—Letters to Miss Nicholson and Miss Clarke. II. The reality of the unseen world—The conviction of sin—The pains of hell—Hunger after righteousness—“All for the Love of God.” III. Independent development of Miss Nightingale's religious thought—The service of God as the service of man—Her testing of religious doctrine by practical results—Her attitude to Roman Catholicism—Desire for a church of works, not doctrines | 46 |
| CHAPTER IV | |
| DISAPPOINTMENT | |
| (1846–1847) | |
| “Disappointment's dry and bitter root.” Pursuit of her ideal—Obstacles to her adoption of nursing—Social prejudices—Low esteem of nurses at the time—The Kaiserswerth “Institution for Deaconesses.” II. Increasing distaste for the routine of home life. III. Social distractions (1847)—Jenny Lind—The British Association at Oxford—Marriage of Miss Clarke—Country visits | 59 |
| CHAPTER V | |
| A WINTER IN ROME; AND AFTER | |
| (1847–1849) | |
| A tour that confirmed a vocation. Sight-seeing in Rome—Admiration for Michael Angelo—The revelation of the Sistine Chapel—The obsession of Rome. II. Italian politics—Pio Nono as Patriot Hero. III. The convent of the Trinità de' Monti—Study of Roman doctrine and ritual—Friendship with the Madre Sta. Colomba—A retreat in the convent—The secret of devotion. IV. Meeting with Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Herbert and with Manning—The London season—Friendship with Lord Shaftesbury—Self-reproaches. V. A projected visit to Kaiserswerth (1848): disappointment again—Acquaintance with Guizot—Ragged school work in London | 69 |
| CHAPTER VI | |
| FOREIGN TRAVEL: EGYPT AND GREECE | |
| (1849–1850) | |
| Another fruitless distraction. A winter in Egypt—Thebes—Condition of the people—Impressions of Egyptian scenery. II. Athens—Doric architecture—Greek scenery. III. Political affairs—The “Don Pacifico” crisis—The Ionian Islands: a day with the High Commissioner. IV. American missionaries at Athens—Dresden—Visit to Kaiserswerth. V. The literary “temptation”—Her view of literary art—Her Letters from Egypt | 84 |
| CHAPTER VII | |
| THE SINGLE LIFE | |
| The three paths. Why Florence Nightingale did not marry—Her criticism of Dorothea in Middlemarch. II. Offers of marriage—Her ideal of marriage—The threefold nature. III. Self-devotion to her vocation—Determination to throw open new spheres for women | 96 |
| CHAPTER VIII | |
| APPRENTICESHIP AT KAISERSWERTH | |
| (1851) | |
| The struggle for independence resumed. Want of sympathy between her and her parents and sister—Unhappiness at home—A “starved” life. II. Growing spirit of revolt—The need of apprenticeship. III. Second visit to Kaiserswerth—Origin of the Institution—Account of its work—Her life there. IV. Craving for sympathy from her relations—Their hope that the apprenticeship would be only an episode | 104 |
| CHAPTER IX | |
| AN INTERLUDE | |
| (1852) | |
| The turning-point. Patience and serenity: waiting for an opportunity. II. With her father at Umberslade—The water cure—Death of her Aunt Evans—Meeting with George Eliot and Mrs. Browning—Visits to Dublin and to Birk Hall (Sir James Clark). III. Literary “Works”—Converse with her “Aunt Mai”—A new religion for the artizans. IV. A little piece of diplomacy—Florence to be free at some future specified time. V. A last attempt to keep her at home | 116 |
| CHAPTER X | |
| FREEDOM. PARIS AND HARLEY STREET | |
| (1853–October 1854) | |
| Visit to Paris—Study in the hospitals—Return to England: death of her grandmother. II. Miss Nightingale invited to take charge of an institution in Harley Street. III. Return to Paris—Study with the Sisters of Charity—Illness. IV. Superintendent of the Harley Street “Hospital for Gentlewomen”—The gentle art of managing committees—Her vocation found—A last attempt to call her back. V. A holiday at Lea Hurst—Visit from Mrs. Gaskell—Outbreak of cholera: return to London. VI. Limited scope at Harley Street—Proposal to Miss Nightingale to become matron at King's College Hospital—Lady Lovelace's prophecy | 127 |
| PART II | |
| THE CRIMEAN WAR (1854–1856) | |
| CHAPTER I | |
| THE CALL | |
| (October 1854) | |
| The Battle of the Alma—The Times special correspondent—State of the hospitals at Scutari—Popular indignation—An appeal for nurses. II. Answer to the appeal—Lady Maria Forester and Miss Nightingale—Sidney Herbert and Miss Nightingale. III. Letters that crossed—Miss Nightingale's offer: Sidney Herbert's suggestion—Miss Nightingale's official instructions. IV. Co-operation of the Times Fund—Selection of nurses for the expedition. V. Miss Nightingale's demeanour—A pocket-book and some letters | 145 |
| CHAPTER II | |
| THE EXPEDITION—PROBLEMS AHEAD | |
| Start of the expedition—Failure to obtain Sisters of Charity in Paris—Reception of the expedition in France—Departure from Marseilles. II. Popular enthusiasm in England—Account of Miss Nightingale in the newspapers—Public subscriptions—Other nurses volunteering. III. Miss Nightingale's plans—Importance of her experiment—Difficulties ahead—Military prejudice: Sir Anthony Sterling's letters—Medical jealousy: Sir John Hall's letters—Religious rivalries—Miss Nightingale's policy | 162 |
| CHAPTER III | |
| THE HOSPITALS AT SCUTARI | |
| Arrival at the Golden Horn. The Scutari hospitals—The General Hospital—The Barrack Hospital: quarters of Miss Nightingale and her staff—The Palace Hospital—The Koulali Hospitals. II. State of the hospitals when Miss Nightingale arrived—Report of the Roebuck Committee—Terrible death-rate—The root of the evil: division of responsibility—Need of individual initiative | 171 |
| CHAPTER IV | |
| THE EXPERT'S TOUCH | |
| The Battle of Balaclava. Miss Nightingale's reception at Scutari: letter from Lord Raglan—Difficulties with the doctors—Miss Nightingale at work in the wards—Difficulties with the nurses. II. Dispatch of a second party of nurses under Miss Stanley, accompanied by Mr. Jocelyne Percy—Miss Nightingale's indignant surprise—Mr. Herbert's promise not to send out more nurses except at her requisition—Danger of ruining the experiment—Medical opposition—Aggravation of the religious difficulty—Arrangements for placing the Stanley party—Significance of the episode in relation to the novelty of the experiment. III. Deficiency of requisites in the hospitals—Miss Nightingale's appeal to the British Ambassador—Her washing reforms—Her “Extra Diet” Kitchens—Alexis Soyer—Sorry plight of the camp-followers—Establishment of a lying-in hospital—Dr. Andrew Smith and the female eye | 181 |
| CHAPTER V | |
| THE ADMINISTRATOR | |
| Miss Nightingale's varied functions. Purveyor-Auxiliary to the hospitals—Ignorance of the Ambassador as to the true state of things—Deficiencies in the stores—Miss Nightingale's caravanserai in “The Sisters' Tower”—Her supplies issued only on medical requisition—Delays in obtaining access to Government stores—Miss Nightingale's resourcefulness in obtaining supplies—Her gifts to the French and Sardinian hospitals—Absurdities of the purveying regulations. II. Clothier to the wounded—Cause of the deficiency of shirts: 50,000 issued from Miss Nightingale's stores. III. Builder—Miss Nightingale's preparation of new wards for additional patients from the Crimea. IV. Her shouldering of responsibility—Strictness of her administration—Almoner of the Queen's “Free Gifts”—Rules and exceptions—Value of her initiative—Sidney Herbert's approval—Mr. Kinglake and “the woman's touch” | 199 |
| CHAPTER VI | |
| THE REFORMER | |
| Miss Nightingale as an inspirer of reform—Sources of her influence—Favour of the Court—Letter from Queen Victoria: her gifts to the soldiers. II. Miss Nightingale's reports to Sidney Herbert—Character of her letters. III. Her urgent appeals for stores—Dispatch of an executive Sanitary Commission—Miss Nightingale's reforms in the handling of Government stores—Other reforms due to her. IV. Her suggestion for systematic reorganization—Suggested improvements in the medical service. V. Miss Nightingale's demeanour at Scutari—Description by S. G. O.—Range of her influence—The efficacy of “going to Miss Nightingale” | 213 |
| CHAPTER VII | |
| THE MINISTERING ANGEL | |
| Dual position of Miss Nightingale: administrator and nurse. Prodigious power of work—Her attention to the sick and wounded—Her midnight vigils—The famous lamp—The soldiers kissing her shadow—Idolization by the men. II. Correspondence with relatives and friends of the wounded soldiers. III. Strain upon Miss Nightingale's powers—Burden of correspondence—Her helpers—Mr. and Mrs. Bracebridge. IV. Schemes for helping the soldiers—Mr. Augustus Stafford—The Orderlies and Miss Nightingale | 233 |
| CHAPTER VIII | |
| THE RELIGIOUS DIFFICULTY | |
| Nature of the religious difficulty. Rivalry between the churches—Various claims for “representation” among the nursing staff—“Anti-Puseyite” attacks. II. Miss Nightingale's attitude in the squabble. III. The difficulty increased by the advent of Miss Stanley's party—Charges of proselytism—Lord Panmure's instructions misinterpreted. IV. Aggravation by the religious feuds of the difficulty of obtaining efficient nurses—Worry caused to Miss Nightingale | 244 |
| CHAPTER IX | |
| TO THE CRIMEA—ILLNESS | |
| (May–August 1855) | |
| Siege of Sebastopol. The hospitals in the Crimea—Miss Nightingale's
authority there not explicitly defined—Her arrival at
Balaclava. II. Visit to the front—Sir John McNeill. III. Work
in the hospitals—Attacked by “Crimean fever”—Anxiety
in England and in the hospitals—Visit from Lord Raglan. IV. Miss Nightingale advised to return to England—Her refusal—Return to Scutari—Gradual recovery—“The heroic dead” |
254 |
| CHAPTER X | |
| THE POPULAR HEROINE | |
| Sympathy in England caused by Miss Nightingale's illness. The popular heroine: letters from Lady Verney. II. The poetry of Seven Dials, verses, songs, lives, portraits, etc.—Miss Nightingale's view of it all. III. Public memorial to her—The Nightingale Fund—Speeches at the public meeting—Nature of the memorial—Subscriptions from the army—Medical jealousy—Presentation of a jewel by the Queen | 264 |
| CHAPTER XI | |
| THE SOLDIERS' FRIEND | |
| Miss Nightingale's ministrations to the moral welfare of the soldiers—Her belief in the possibility of reforms. II. Her letter to the Queen on drunkenness in the army: considered by the Cabinet—Miss Nightingale's Money Order Office at Scutari—Government offices opened—The “Inkerman Café”—Sir Henry Storks—Miss Nightingale's influence with the soldiers. III. Establishment of reading-rooms and class-rooms | 276 |
| CHAPTER XII | |
| TO THE CRIMEA AGAIN | |
| (September 1855–July 1856) | |
| Fall of Sebastopol: Miss Nightingale's second and third visits to the Crimea. Hardships of her work in the Crimea—Her “carriage”—The hospital huts on the heights above Balaclava—Her Extra Diet Kitchens. II. Opposition to her in military and medical quarters—Sir John Hall's opposition—Difficulties with the nuns—Miss Nightingale's authority disputed. III. Her appeals to home for support—Correspondence with Sidney Herbert—Dispatch from the Secretary of State defining her full authority in the Crimea promulgated in General Orders—Exhausting labours in the Crimea: testamentary dispositions. IV. Hard work at Scutari—Letters from the aunt who was with Miss Nightingale—Christmas Day at the British Embassy—Colonel Lefroy | 283 |
| CHAPTER XIII | |
| END OF THE WAR—RETURN HOME | |
| (July–August 1856) | |
| The Peace. Return of the nurses—Miss Nightingale's tribute to her “mainstays.” II. The Government's thanks to Miss Nightingale—Gratitude of the soldiers—Offer of a man-of-war for her return—Lord Ellesmere's speech in the House of Lords. III. Return of Miss Nightingale—Publicity avoided—Her “spoils of war.” IV. Her Crimean work a starting-point | 299 |
| PART III | |
| FOR THE HEALTH OF THE SOLDIERS | |
| (1856–1861) | |
| CHAPTER I | |
| THE QUEEN, MISS NIGHTINGALE, AND LORD PANMURE | |
| (August–November 1856) | |
| “Muddling through a war”: the favourable moment for reform. Advantage taken of the opportunity after the Crimean War for the better sanitation of the British Army—Co-operation of Sidney Herbert and Miss Nightingale. II. Her passionate desire to lessen preventable mortality in the future—Examination of the figures of mortality in the army during peace—Her admiration of the heroism of the British soldier—Her opportunity and sense of responsibility. III. A short holiday at Lea Hurst—Acquaintance with Mr. Kinglake—Invitation from Sir James Clark to Ballater—A visit from Queen Victoria likely—Miss Nightingale's preparations: consultation with Sir John McNeill and Colonel Lefroy—Miss Nightingale's plan of campaign. IV. First visit to Balmoral—Visit from the Queen at Sir J. Clark's—Conversations with the Queen and the Prince Consort—Miss Nightingale requested to remain to see the Secretary for War. V. Awaiting Lord Panmure—Advice from Sir J. McNeill—“Command visit” to Balmoral—Conversations with Lord Panmure—Appointment of a Royal Commission promised—Establishment of an Army Medical School favoured—Miss Nightingale to report on her experiences. VI. Conferences of Miss Nightingale's “Cabinet”—Provisional selection of Royal Commissioners: draft of their instructions—Interview with Lord Panmure in London: points won and lost—The personnel of the Commission | 311 |
| CHAPTER II | |
| SOWING THE SEED | |
| (November 1856–August 1857) | |
| Power of departmental passive resistance: delay in setting up the Commission. Lord Panmure's gout—“The Bison is bullyable”—Miss Nightingale's weapon in reserve: her potential command of the public ear. II. The “Chelsea Board”: the McNeill-Tulloch affaire—Parliamentary pressure on the Government. III. Miss Nightingale's friendship with Lord Stanley—Miss Nightingale and the China expedition—The Netley Hospital—Her negotiations with Lord Panmure—Visit to Lord Palmerston—Her “fight for the pavilion.” IV. Her preparation for the Royal Commission by writing her own official Report—Lord Panmure's instructions—This Report, the most remarkable of her works—Account of it. V. The experts and Miss Nightingale—Her inspection of hospitals and barracks—Visit to Chatham—Reform at Chelsea—Miss Nightingale and Robert Lowe—The proposed Army Medical School—Her suggestions of soldiers' reading-rooms. VI. The Royal Commission set up—Interview with Lord Panmure—Her revision of the instructions—Mr. Herbert's industry as chairman—Miss Nightingale's assistance—Dr. Sutherland—Her interviews with witnesses, suggestions for their examination—Her own evidence. VII. Report of the Commission—Its salient feature, the high rate of mortality in the barracks—Mr. Herbert and Miss Nightingale resolved on securing prompt reforms | 334 |
| CHAPTER III | |
| ENFORCING A REPORT | |
| (August–December 1857) | |
| Frequent futility of Royal Commissions. Mr. Herbert's and Miss Nightingale's plans for averting the danger—Proposed series of Sub-Commissions to settle the details of reform—Lord Panmure off to Scotland—Departmental objections—Delay in appointing the Sub-Commissions—Miss Nightingale's labours. II. Over-work—Dr. Sutherland's expostulations—Her refusal to rest. III. The Indian Mutiny—Miss Nightingale's offer to go out. Her life at this period—Miss Nightingale's daily work with her allies—Ill-health—Testamentary dispositions | 362 |
| CHAPTER IV | |
| REAPING THE FRUIT | |
| (1858–1860) | |
| Fruits of Miss Nightingale's labours. Publication of the Report of the Royal Commission—Her measures for calling attention to the rate of mortality; for securing reviews of the Report. II. Resignation of Lord Palmerston's Government—General Peel, the new Secretary for War—Miss Nightingale's anxiety about a new director-general of the Army Medical Department—Disappointed with General Peel—Miss Nightingale's ill-health—Her sister's marriage—Mr. Herbert overworked. III. Work of the Barracks and Hospitals Commission: Miss Nightingale and the kitchens—Work with Mr. Herbert and Dr. Sutherland in connection with other Sub-Commissions—Netley Hospital again—Miss Nightingale's papers on Hospital Construction (1858). IV. Private circulation of her Report to Lord Panmure—Miss Nightingale and the Duke of Cambridge—Harriet Martineau's co-operation with Miss Nightingale—Her Contribution to the Sanitary History of the British Army (1859). V. Resignation of Lord Derby's Government—Mr. Herbert, Secretary for War—Reforms in the barracks—Appointment of a permanent Barracks Works Committee (afterwards called Army Sanitary Committee)—School of cookery—Improved Army Medical Statistics—Establishment of an Army Medical School: Miss Nightingale as its founder: the present college—Other reforms due to her. VI. Results of Mr. Herbert's reforms—Miss Nightingale's tribute to him—Their co-operation | 375 |
| CHAPTER V | |
| THE DEATH OF SIDNEY HERBERT | |
| (1861) | |
| Break-down of Mr. Herbert's health. His interview with Miss Nightingale (December 1860): decision to give up the House of Commons—Created Lord Herbert of Lea—Her insistence that he should reform the War Office—His abandonment of the attempt—Establishment of the General Military Hospital at Woolwich—Introduction of female nursing—His last letter to Miss Nightingale—His death (August 2)—“Our joint-work unfinished.” II. Miss Nightingale's grief—Obituary notices of him—Mr. Gladstone's interview with her—Her memorandum on Lord Herbert's reforms—Her endeavour to interest Mr. Gladstone in their completion—His reply—Public meeting to promote a Herbert Memorial. III. The friendship between Sidney Herbert and Miss Nightingale | 401 |
| PART IV | |
| HOSPITALS AND NURSING (1858–1861) | |
| CHAPTER I | |
| THE HOSPITAL REFORMER | |
| (1858–1861) | |
| Miss Nightingale's work with Sidney Herbert carried on at the same time with other work. Her place as a Sanitarian—Her prestige as an authority on hospitals—Her Notes on Hospitals—General condition of hospitals at the time—Influence of her book—Miss Nightingale widely consulted on the construction of hospitals, at home and abroad. II. The Manchester Royal Infirmary, and Mr. Joseph Adshead—St. Thomas's Hospital, London: the battle of the sites—Miss Nightingale and the Prince Consort | 415 |
| CHAPTER II | |
| THE PASSIONATE STATISTICIAN | |
| (1859–1861) | |
| Statistics as a passion. Miss Nightingale's study of the works of Quetelet—Careless statistical records in the Crimean War—Her model Hospital Statistical Forms—Advantage to be derived from such data—International Statistical Congress in London (1860)—Miss Nightingale's alliance with Dr. Farr—Adoption of her Forms—Her reception of the delegates—Circulation of her paper—Partial adoption of her scheme by London and other hospitals. II. Her advocacy of the better utilization of Government statistics—Her efforts to extend the scope of the Census of 1861—Correspondence with Mr. Lowe and Sir George Lewis—An appeal to the Lords | 428 |
| CHAPTER III | |
| THE FOUNDER OF MODERN NURSING | |
| (1860) | |
| Three great contributions of the 19th century to the relief of human suffering in disease. Miss Nightingale's place in the history of nursing—The founder not of nursing, but of modern nursing—Her peculiar fitness for directing tendencies of the time towards improved nursing. II. Condition of nursing at the time—Miss Nightingale's influence in raising it from a menial occupation to a trained profession. III. Force of her example—Enthusiasm excited by her among women. IV. Force of her precept—Notes on Nursing (1859–60)—The text-book of the New Model in Nursing—Popularity of the book—Reminiscences of the Crimea in it—“Minding Baby.” V. Some characteristics of the book—General grasp of principles, combined with minuteness of detail—Delicacy of observation, and fineness of sympathy—Epigrammatic expression. VI. Importance of training in the art of nursing—The Notes as a prelude to practice | 439 |
| CHAPTER IV | |
| THE NIGHTINGALE NURSES | |
| (1860–1861) | |
| Importance of the Nightingale Training School—Early history of the “Nightingale Fund”—Accumulation of the money during Miss Nightingale's absorption in other work—Appointment of a working committee (1859)—Decision to found a Training School in connexion with St. Thomas's Hospital—Character of Mrs. Wardroper, matron of the hospital. II. Essential principles of Miss Nightingale's scheme: (1) technical, a Training School; lectures, examinations, reports, etc.; (2) moral, a home. III. Miss Nightingale's supervision—Favourable start of the school. IV. Further application of the Nightingale Fund to the training of midwives. V. Wide influence of the Nightingale School—Novelty of the experiment—Medical opposition at the start—From paradox to commonplace | 456 |
| CHAPTER V | |
| THE RELIGIOUS SANCTION: “SUGGESTIONS FOR THOUGHT” | |
| (1860) | |
| The religious sanction behind Miss Nightingale's life of work—Resumption of her theological speculations—Printing of her Suggestions for Thought—General character of the book. II. Miss Nightingale and John Stuart Mill—Her introduction to Benjamin Jowett—The book submitted to them—Mill's advice that it should be published, Jowett's that it should not—Literary imperfections—Her impatience of literary revision. III. Scope of the book—Vehemence of style—Explanation of Mill's and Jowett's contrary advice. IV. Origin of the book—Sketch of her theological system—Thoughts on Prayer—God as Law—Influence of Quetelet—Doctrine of human perfectibility as explaining the existence of evil—Freewill and Necessity—Belief in a future life—The philosophy of history—Motive for human conduct. V. Miss Nightingale's attitude to current creeds, Protestant and Catholic. VI. Spiritual intensity with which she held her creed | 468 |
| CHAPTER VI | |
| MISS NIGHTINGALE AT HOME | |
| (1858 1861) | |
| Continued ill-health—Serious illness and expectation of early death—Yet constant work—Doctor's opinions—Necessity for husbanding her strength. II. Consequent manner of life—A laborious hermit—Help from her friends—A. H. Clough—Her uncle, Mr. S. Smith, and her private correspondence. III. Her places of residence—Highgate and Hampstead—The Burlington Hotel in London—The Queen's offer of rooms in Kensington Palace: why declined—Her cats. IV. Reading and music—Her Italian sympathies. V. Seclusion from visitors, friends and relations—Miss Nightingale and her father. VI. Correspondence with her friends—Associations of the Burlington Hotel | 491 |
| FACE PAGE | |
| Mrs. Nightingale and her two Daughters: 1828. (From a water-colour drawing in possession of Mrs. Cunliffe) | Frontispiece |
| Florence Nightingale about 1845. (From a pencil drawing by her cousin, Miss Hilary Bonham Carter, in possession of Miss B. A. Clough) | 38 |
| Florence Nightingale: about 1858. (From a photograph by Goodman) | 394 |
Among Miss Nightingale's memoranda on books and reading, there is this injunction: “The preface of a book ought to set forth the importance of what it is going to treat of, so that the reader may understand what he is reading for.” The saying is typical of the methodical and positive spirit which, as we shall learn, was one of the dominant strains in Miss Nightingale's work and character. She wanted to know at every stage precisely what a person, or a book, or an institution was driving at. “Of all human sounds,” she said, “I think the words I don't know are the saddest.” Unless a book had something of definite importance to say, it had better, she thought, not be written; and in order to save the reader's time and fix his attention, he should be told at once wherein the significance of the book consists. This, though it may be a hard saying, is perhaps not unwholesome even to biographers. At any rate, as Miss Nightingale's biographer, I am moved to obey her injunction. I propose, therefore, in this Introductory chapter to state wherein, as I conceive, the significance and importance of Miss Nightingale's life consists, and what the work was that she did in the world.
“In the course of a life's experience such as scarcely any one has ever had, I have always found,” said Miss Nightingale,[1] “that no one ever deserves his or her character. Be it better or worse than the real one, it is always unlike the real one.” Of no one is this saying more true than of herself. “It has been your fate,” said Mr. Jowett to her once, “to become a Legend in your lifetime.” Now, nothing is more persistent than a legend; and the legend of Florence Nightingale became fixed early in her life—at a time, indeed, antecedent to that at which her best work in the world, as she thought, had begun. The popular imagination of Miss Nightingale is of a girl of high degree who, moved by a wave of pity, forsook the pleasures of fashionable life for the horrors of the Crimean War; who went about the hospitals of Scutari with a lamp, scattering flowers of comfort and ministration; who retired at the close of the war into private life, and lived thenceforth in the seclusion of an invalid's room—a seclusion varied only by good deeds to hospitals and nurses and by gracious and sentimental pieties. I do not mean, of course, that this was all that anybody knew or wrote about her. Any such suggestion would be far from the truth. But the popular idea of Florence Nightingale's life has been based on some such lines as I have indicated, and the general conception of her character is to this day founded upon them. The legend was fixed by Longfellow's poem and Miss Yonge's Golden Deeds. Its growth was favoured by the fact of Miss Nightingale's seclusion, by the hidden, almost the secretive, manner in which she worked, by her shrinking from publicity, by her extreme reticence about herself. It is only now, when her Papers are accessible, that her real life can be known. There are some elements of truth in the popular legend, but it is so remote from the whole truth as to convey in general impression everything but the truth. The real Florence Nightingale was very different from the legendary, but also greater. Her life was built on larger lines, her work had more importance, than belong to the legend.
The Crimean War was not the first thing, and still less was it the last, that is significant in Miss Nightingale's life. The story of her earlier years is that of the building up of a character. It shows us a girl of high natural ability and of considerable attractions feeling her way to an ideal alike in practice and in speculation. Having found it, she was thrown into revolt against the environment of her home. We shall see her pursuing her ideal with consistent, though with self-torturing, tenacity against alike the obstacles and the temptations of circumstance. She had already served an apprenticeship when the call to the Crimea came. It was a call not to “sacrifice,” but to the fulfilment of her dearest wishes for a life of active usefulness. Such is the theme of the First Part, which I have called “Aspiration.”
Many other women have passed through similar experiences. But there is special significance in them in the case of Florence Nightingale—a significance both historic and personal. The glamour that surrounded her service in the Crimea, the wide-world publicity that was given to her name and deeds, invested with peculiar importance her fight for freedom. To do “as Florence Nightingale did” became an object of imitation which the well-to-do world was henceforth readier to condone, or even to approve; and thus the story of Miss Nightingale's earlier years is the history of a pioneer, on one side, in the emancipation of women.
For the understanding of her own later life, the earlier years are all-important. They give the clue to her character, and explain much that would otherwise be puzzling or confused. Through great difficulties and at a heavy price she had purchased her birthright—her ideal of self-expression in work. On her return from the Crimea she was placed, on the one hand, owing to her fame, in a position of special opportunity; on the other hand, owing to illness, in a position of special disability. She shaped her life henceforward so as to make these two factors conform to the continued fulfilment of her ideal. I need not here forestall what subsequent chapters will abundantly illustrate. I will only say that the resultant effect was a manner of life and work, both extraordinary, and, to me at least, of the greatest interest.
The Second Part of the Memoir is devoted to the Crimean War. The popular conception with regard to Miss Nightingale's work during this episode in her life is not untrue so far as it goes, but it is amazingly short of the whole truth as now ascertainable from her Papers. The popular imagination pictures Florence Nightingale at Scutari and in the Crimea as “the ministering angel.” And such in very truth she was. But the deeper significance of her work in the Crimean War lies elsewhere. It was as Administrator and Reformer, more than as Angel, that she showed her peculiar powers. Queen Victoria, with native shrewdness and a touch of humour, hit off the truth about Miss Nightingale's services in the Crimea in concise words: “Such a clear head. I wish we had her at the War Office.”
The influence of Miss Nightingale's service in the Crimea was great. Some of it is obvious, and on the moral side Longfellow's poem said the first, and the last, word. She may also be accounted, if not the founder, yet the promoter of Female Nursing in war, and the Red Cross Societies throughout the world are, as we shall hear, the direct outcome of her labours in the Crimea. The indirect, and less obvious, results were in many spheres. From a sick-room in the West End of London Miss Nightingale played a part—and a much larger part than could be known without access to her Papers—in reforming the sanitary administration of the British army, in reconstructing hospitals throughout the world, in founding the modern art of nursing, in setting up a sanitary administration in India, and in promoting various other reforms in that country.
Miss Nightingale's return from the Crimea, it will thus be seen, was not the end of her active life. In a sense it was the beginning. The nursing at Scutari and in the Crimea was an episode. The fame which she shunned, but which nevertheless came to her, gave her a starting-point for doing work which was destined, as she hoped, and as in large measure was granted, to be of permanent service to her country and the world. The first chapter of the Third Part shows her laying her plans for the health of the British soldier, and the subsequent chapters tell what followed. This is the period of Miss Nightingale's close co-operation with Sidney Herbert. To the writer this later phase of Miss Nightingale's life—with its ingenious adjustment of means to ends, its masterful resourcefulness, its incessant industry, and then with its perpetual struggle against physical weakness and its extraordinary power of devoted concentration—has seemed not less interesting than the Crimean episode.
The Fourth Part describes, as its main themes, the work which Miss Nightingale did, concurrently with that described in the preceding Part, as Hospital Reformer and the Founder of Modern Nursing. Other chapters introduce two topics which might at first sight seem widely separate, but which were yet closely associated in Miss Nightingale's mind. They deal with her, respectively, as a Passionate Statistician and as a Religious Thinker. The nature of her speculations is fully explained in the latter chapters, and elsewhere in the memoir. It will be seen that Miss Nightingale had thought out a scheme of religious belief which widely differed from the creeds of Christian orthodoxy, whether Catholic or Protestant, but which yet admitted of accommodation to much of their language and formularies. It admitted also, as will appear in due course, of close alliance with mysticism. Miss Nightingale believed intensely in a Personal God and in personal religion. The language which expressed most adequately to her the sense of union with God was the language of the Greek and Christian mystics. But “law” was to her “the thought of God”; union with God meant co-operation with Him towards human perfectibility; and for the discovery of “the thought of God” statistics were to her mind an indispensable means.
In the Fifth Part we are introduced to a new interest in Miss Nightingale's life, a new sphere of her work. For forty years she worked at Indian questions. She took up the subject at first through interest in the army. It was a natural supplement to her efforts for the health of the British soldier at home, to make a like attempt on behalf of the army in India. Gradually she was drawn into other questions, and she became a keen Indian reformer all along the line. Her assiduity, her persistence, her ingenuity were as marked in this sphere as in others; it was only her immediate success that was less.
In relation to the primary object with which she began her Indian campaigns, Miss Nightingale's life and work have great importance. The Royal Commission of 1859–63, which was due to her, and the measures taken in consequence of its Report, were the starting-point of a new era in sanitary improvement for the army. The results have been most salutary. Miss Nightingale's friendship with Lord Stanley and with Sir John Lawrence here served her somewhat as that with Mr. Herbert served in the earlier campaign. In the wider sphere of Indian sanitation generally Miss Nightingale's efforts were not so successful. The field was perhaps too vast, the conditions were too adverse, for any great and immediate success to be possible. Yet this and her other efforts for India were the part of Miss Nightingale's life and work to which she attached most importance, and by the record of which she set most store. Even in the Will (afterwards revoked) directing her Papers to be destroyed, she made exception of those relating to India; and, as already stated in the preface, one of her few pieces of autobiographical record related to her Indian work. Perhaps it was the special affection which a mother often feels for the least robust or least successful child. Perhaps it was that she took long views; and that, foreseeing a future time when many of the reforms for which she had toiled might be accomplished, she desired to be remembered as a pioneer. “Sanitation,” said a high authority in 1894, “is the Cinderella of the Indian administrative family.”[2] The difficulty of finding money and a reluctance to introduce Western reforms in advance of Eastern opinion are objections with which we shall often meet in the correspondence of Indian officials with Miss Nightingale, and they are still raised in the present day.[3] On the other hand, the Under-Secretary for India, in his Budget Statement for 1913, declared that “the service which has the strongest claim after education on the resources of the Government is sanitation,” and explained that “the Budget estimate of expenditure for sanitation comes this year to nearly £2,000,000, showing an increase of 112 per cent over the expenditure of three years ago.” So perhaps Cinderella is to go to the ball; if ever the glass slipper is found, let it be remembered, as this Memoir will show, that Miss Nightingale was the good fairy.
Her Indian work continued as long as she was able to work at all, and from 1862 onwards it forms one of the recurring themes in our story. The Sixth Part, while continuing that subject, introduces another sphere in which Miss Nightingale's life and work have important significance. From the reform of Hospital Nursing she turned, in conjunction with the late Mr. William Rathbone, to the reform of workhouse nursing. And as one thing led to another, it will be seen that Miss Nightingale deserves to be remembered also as a Poor Law Reformer.
The Seventh Part comprises the last thirty-eight years of Miss Nightingale's life (1872–1910), and a word or two may here be said to explain an apparent alteration of scale. In a biography the scale must be proportionate not to the number of the years, but to their richness in characteristic significance. After 1872, the year in which (as Miss Nightingale put it) she went “out of office,” her life was less full than theretofore in new activities. The germinant seeds had all been sown. But these later years, though they have admitted of more summary treatment, were full of interest. The chapters in which they are recorded deal first with Miss Nightingale's literary work, and more especially with her studies in Plato and the Christian mystics. These studies were in part a result of her close friendship of thirty years with Mr. Jowett. Then, too, occasion is found for an endeavour to portray Miss Nightingale as the Mother-Chief (for so they called her) of the Nurses. It is only by access to her enormous correspondence in this sort that the range and extent of her personal influence can be measured. Her ideal of the nursing vocation stands out very clearly from the famous “Nurses' Battle” which occupied much of her later years. She found an opportunity during the same period to start an important experiment in Rural Hygiene. At the same time she was preaching indefatigably the need of Health missionaries in Indian villages. And then came the end. To the time of labour, there succeeds in every life, says Ruskin, “the time of death; which in happy lives is very short, but always a time.” In the case of Miss Nightingale the time was long. She lived for many years after the power to labour was gone.
So much, by way of preface, in explanation of the significance of Miss Nightingale's life and work. But this book endeavours to depict a character, as well as to record a career. There has been much discussion, in our days as in others, of the proper scope and method of biography, and various models are held up, in one sense or another, to practitioners in this difficult art. The questions are propounded, whether biography should describe a person's life or his character? his work or how he did it? If the person did anything worthy of record, a biography should, surely, describe alike the life and the character, the work and the methods. The biographer may fail in his attempt; but in the case of Miss Nightingale the attempt is peculiarly necessary, because all that she did and the manner in which she did it were, as it has seemed to me, characteristic of a strongly-marked personality behind them.
This book is, however, a biography and not a history. It is not a history of the Crimean War, nor of nursing, nor of Indian administration. Something on all these matters will be found in it; but only so much of detail as was necessary to place Miss Nightingale's work in its true light and to exhibit her characteristic methods. So, also, many other persons will pass across the stage—persons drawn from a great many different classes, occupations, walks in life; but the book does not aim at giving a detailed picture of “Miss Nightingale's circle.” Her relations, her friends, her acquaintances, her correspondents only concern us here in so far as their dealings with her affected her work, or illustrate her character.
Here, again—to revert to what has been said above—it will be found, I think, that this book possesses a certain significance as correcting, or supplementing, a popular legend. A preacher, in an obituary sermon upon Miss Nightingale, said that all her work was done “by force of simple goodness.” Assuredly Miss Nightingale was a good woman, and there was also a certain simplicity about her. But there was much else. A man of affairs, who in the course of a long and varied life had come in contact with many of the acutest intellects and greatest administrators of the time, said of Miss Nightingale that hers was the clearest brain he had ever known in man or woman. Strength of head was quite as marked in her as goodness of heart, and she had at least as much of adroitness as of simplicity. Her character was in fact curiously many-sided. A remarkable variety of interests, motives, methods will be found coming into play in the course of this record. The Florence Nightingale who will be shown in it—by her acts, her methods, her sayings, her ways of looking at things and people—is a very different person from Santa Filomena. Miss Nightingale has been given a place among the saints in the popular calendars of many nations; and she deserves the canonisation, but not entirely for the popular reasons. Her character, as I have endeavoured to depict it, was stronger, more spacious, and, as I have felt, more lovable than that of The Lady with the Lamp.