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70-641: The Cambrian Mills, which opened in 1856, were the first steam-driven mills in Newton. The mill complex was beside the canal terminus on the east bank of the Severn. The Cambrian Mill was built in 1861 and rebuilt in 1875. They expanded to become the largest Welsh woollen mills. The local Newtown draper Pryce Pryce-Jones exploited the railway to found the first mail-order business for his flannel clothes. Pryce Jones launched his mail order business in 1859, selling Welsh flannels to local people. He had impressive ability as

140-556: A "missioner of health" dedicated to the advancement of "human welfare"—an expansion of nurses' bedside focus to an approach that encompassed public health. US nurses have recited the pledge at pinning ceremonies for decades. In recent years, many US nursing schools have made changes to the original or 1935 versions, often removing the "loyalty to physicians" phrasing to promote a more independent nursing profession, with its own particular ethical standards. Original "Florence Nightingale Pledge": I solemnly pledge myself before God and in

210-651: A bed for the night and got it; Seacole was in Scutari en route to the Crimea to join her business partner and start their business. However, Seacole pointed out that when she tried to join Nightingale's group, one of Nightingale's colleagues rebuffed her, and Seacole inferred that racism was at the root of that rebuttal. Nightingale told her brother-in-law, in a private letter, that she was worried about contact between her work and Seacole's business, claiming that while "she

280-478: A feature is correct — but the whole effect is more expressive of spiritual grandeur than anything I could have imagined. It makes the impression upon one that thousands of voices do, uniting in one unanimous simultaneous feeling of enthusiasm or emotion, which is said to overcome the strongest man." At Thebes, she wrote of being "called to God", while a week later near Cairo she wrote in her diary (as distinct from her far longer letters that her elder sister Parthenope

350-424: A little lamp in her hand, making her solitary rounds. The phrase was further popularised by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 's 1857 poem "Santa Filomena": Lo! in that house of misery A lady with a lamp I see Pass through the glimmering gloom, And flit from room to room. Nightingale was nicknamed "the lady with the hammer" by the troops after using a hammer to break into locked storage to access medicine to treat

420-611: A manager and trainer of nurses during the Crimean War , in which she organised care for wounded soldiers at Constantinople . She significantly reduced death rates by improving hygiene and living standards. Nightingale gave nursing a favourable reputation and became an icon of Victorian culture , especially in the persona of "The Lady with the Lamp" making rounds of wounded soldiers at night. Recent commentators have asserted that Nightingale's Crimean War achievements were exaggerated by

490-737: A nursing pioneer in the US and Japan. By 1882, several Nightingale nurses had become matrons at several leading hospitals, including, in London ( St Mary's Hospital , Westminster Hospital, St Marylebone Workhouse Infirmary and the Hospital for Incurables at Putney ) and throughout Britain ( Royal Victoria Hospital , Netley ; Edinburgh Royal Infirmary ; Cumberland Infirmary and Liverpool Royal Infirmary), as well as at Sydney Hospital in New South Wales , Australia. In 1883, Nightingale became

560-469: A politician who had been Secretary at War (1845–1846) who was on his honeymoon. He and Nightingale became lifelong close friends. Herbert would be Secretary of War again during the Crimean War when he and his wife would be instrumental in facilitating Nightingale's nursing work in Crimea. She became Herbert's key adviser throughout his political career, though she was accused by some of having hastened Herbert's death from Bright's disease in 1861 because of

630-566: A prolonged correspondence with Irish nun Mary Clare Moore , with whom she had worked in Crimea. Her most beloved confidante was Mary Clarke , an Englishwoman she met in Paris in 1837 and kept in touch with throughout her life. Some scholars of Nightingale's life believe that she remained chaste for her entire life, perhaps because she felt a religious calling to her career. Florence Nightingale died peacefully in her sleep in her room at 10  South Street, Mayfair , London, on 13 August 1910, at

700-540: A promoter, and was personally responsible for the success of the Newtown flannel industry in the last part of the 19th century. By the end of the 1860s he was able to claim that Florence Nightingale and Queen Victoria were among his loyal customers. In 1865 the Cambrian Flannel Company of Newtown and Llanidloes was established with the backing of MP Sir Charles Hanbury Tracy , and acquired many of

770-427: A strong desire to devote her life to the service of others. In her youth she was respectful of her family's opposition to her working as a nurse, only announcing her decision to enter the field in 1844. Despite the anger and distress of her mother and sister, she rejected the expected role for a woman of her status to become a wife and mother. Nightingale worked hard to educate herself in the art and science of nursing, in

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840-620: Is a modified version of the Hippocratic Oath . Lystra Gretter and a Committee for the Farrand Training School Grace for Nurses in Detroit, Michigan created the pledge in 1893. Gretter, inspired by the work of Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing , credited the pledge to the work of her committee, but was herself considered "the moving spirit behind the idea" for the pledge. The Nightingale Pledge

910-471: Is a statement of the ethics and principles of the nursing profession in the United States, and it is not used outside the US. It included a vow to "abstain from whatever is deleterious and mischievous" and to "zealously seek to nurse those who are ill wherever they may be and whenever they are in need." In a 1935 revision to the pledge, Gretter widened the role of the nurse by including an oath to become

980-515: Is recognised as the knowledge which every one ought to have – distinct from medical knowledge, which only a profession can have". Notes on Nursing also sold well to the general reading public and is considered a classic introduction to nursing. Nightingale spent the rest of her life promoting and organising the nursing profession. In the introduction to the 1974 edition, Joan Quixley of the Nightingale School of Nursing wrote: "The book

1050-463: Is sometimes said to have denied the theory of infection for her entire life, a 2008 biography disagrees, saying that she was simply opposed to a precursor of germ theory known as contagionism . This theory held that diseases could only be transmitted by touch. Before the experiments of the mid-1860s by Pasteur and Lister , hardly anyone took germ theory seriously; even afterwards, many medical practitioners were unconvinced. Bostridge points out that in

1120-803: The Crimean War , which became her central focus when reports got back to Britain about the horrific conditions for the wounded at the military hospital on the Asiatic side of the Bosporus , opposite Constantinople , at Scutari (modern-day Üsküdar in Istanbul ). Britain and France entered the war against Russia on the side of the Ottoman Empire . On 21 October 1854, she and the staff of 38 women volunteer nurses including her head nurse Eliza Roberts and her aunt Mai Smith, and 15 Catholic nuns (mobilised by Henry Edward Manning ) were sent (under

1190-648: The Nightingale Pledge taken by new nurses, and the Florence Nightingale Medal , the highest international distinction a nurse can achieve, were named in her honour, and the annual International Nurses Day is celebrated on her birthday. Her social reforms included improving healthcare for all sections of British society, advocating better hunger relief in India, helping to abolish prostitution laws that were harsh for women, and expanding

1260-543: The pie chart , which had first been developed by William Playfair in 1801. While common now, it was at the time a relatively novel method of presenting data. Indeed, Nightingale is described as "a true pioneer in the graphical representation of statistics" and is especially well known for her usage of a polar area diagram , or occasionally the Nightingale rose diagram , equivalent to a modern circular histogram , to illustrate seasonal sources of patient mortality in

1330-685: The BBC released documentaries that were critical of Nightingale's performance in the Crimean War, as were some follow-up articles published in The Guardian and the Sunday Times . Nightingale scholar Lynn McDonald has dismissed these criticisms as "often preposterous", arguing they are not supported by the primary sources. Nightingale still believed that the death rates were due to poor nutrition, lack of supplies, stale air, and overworking of

1400-481: The Lamp" from a phrase in a report in The Times : She is a "ministering angel" without any exaggeration in these hospitals, and as her slender form glides quietly along each corridor, every poor fellow's face softens with gratitude at the sight of her. When all the medical officers have retired for the night and silence and darkness have settled down upon those miles of prostrate sick, she may be observed alone, with

1470-924: The Rhine, for the Practical Training of Deaconesses, etc. was her first published work. She also received four months of medical training at the institute, which formed the basis for her later care. On 22 August 1853, Nightingale took the post of superintendent at the Institute for the Care of Sick Gentlewomen in Upper Harley Street , London, a position she held until October 1854. Her father had given her an annual income of £500 (roughly £40,000/US$ 65,000 in present terms), which allowed her to live comfortably and to pursue her career. Florence Nightingale's most famous contribution came during

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1540-609: The Sanitary Commission had to be sent out by the British government to Scutari in March ;1855, almost six months after Nightingale had arrived. The commission flushed out the sewers and improved ventilation. Death rates were sharply reduced, but she never claimed credit for helping to reduce the death rate. Head Nurse Eliza Roberts nursed Nightingale through her critical illness of May 1855. In 2001 and 2008

1610-436: The acceptable forms of female participation in the workforce. Nightingale was an innovator in statistics; she represented her analysis in graphical forms to ease drawing conclusions and actionables from data. She is famous for usage of the polar area diagram , also called the Nightingale rose diagram, which is equivalent to a modern circular histogram . This diagram is still regularly used in data visualisation . Nightingale

1680-530: The age of 90. The offer of burial in Westminster Abbey was declined by her relatives and she is buried in the churchyard of St Margaret's Church in East Wellow , Hampshire, near Embley Park with a memorial with just her initials and dates of birth and death. She left a large body of work, including several hundred notes that were previously unpublished. A memorial monument to Nightingale

1750-614: The authorisation of Sidney Herbert) to the Ottoman Empire . On the way, Nightingale was assisted in Paris by her friend Mary Clarke . The volunteer nurses worked about 295 nautical miles (546 km; 339 mi) away from the main British camp across the Black Sea at Balaklava , in the Crimea . Nightingale arrived at Selimiye Barracks in Scutari early in November ;1854. Her team found that poor care for wounded soldiers

1820-404: The authority of Nightingale. The two were to remain friends for the rest of their lives. The second wave, headed by Mary Francis Bridgeman met with a cooler reception as Bridgeman refused to give up her authority over her Sisters to Nightingale while at the same time not trusting Nightingale, whom she regarded as ambitious. During the Crimean War, Nightingale gained the nickname "The Lady with

1890-487: The case of the Nightingale family and Florence in particular. She and Florence were to remain close friends for 40 years despite their 27-year age difference. Clarke demonstrated that women could be equal to men, an idea that Florence had not learnt from her mother. Nightingale underwent the first of several experiences that she believed were calls from God in February ;1837 while at Embley Park , prompting

1960-669: The cause. Most authorities today accept that Nightingale suffered from a particularly extreme form of brucellosis, the effects of which only began to lift in the early 1880s. Despite her symptoms, she remained phenomenally productive in social reform. During her bedridden years, she also did pioneering work in the field of hospital planning, and her work propagated quickly across Britain and the world. Nightingale's output slowed down considerably in her last decade. She wrote very little during that period due to blindness and declining mental abilities, though she still retained an interest in current affairs. Although much of Nightingale's work improved

2030-460: The code of ethics of the nursing profession; To co-operate faithfully with the other members of the nursing team and to carry out faithfully and to the best of my ability the instructions of the physician or the nurse who may be assigned to supervise my work; I will not do anything evil or malicious and I will not knowingly give any harmful drug or assist in malpractice. I will not reveal any confidential information that may come to my knowledge in

2100-405: The cornerstone of the curriculum at the Nightingale School and other nursing schools, though it was written specifically for the education of those nursing at home. Nightingale wrote, "Every day sanitary knowledge, or the knowledge of nursing, or in other words, of how to put the constitution in such a state as that it will have no disease, or that it can recover from disease, takes a higher place. It

2170-468: The death rate from 42% to 2%, either by making improvements in hygiene herself, or by calling for the Sanitary Commission. For example, Nightingale implemented handwashing in the hospital where she worked. During her first winter at Scutari, 4,077 soldiers died there. Ten times more soldiers died from illnesses such as typhus , typhoid , cholera , and dysentery than from battle wounds. With overcrowding, defective sewers and lack of ventilation,

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2240-855: The early 1880s Nightingale wrote an article for a textbook in which she advocated strict precautions designed, she said, to kill germs. Nightingale's work served as an inspiration for nurses in the American Civil War . The Union government approached her for advice in organising field medicine. Her ideas inspired the volunteer body of the United States Sanitary Commission . Nightingale advocated autonomous nursing leadership, and that her new style of matrons had full control and discipline over their nursing staff. The infamous " Guy's Hospital dispute" in 1879–1880 between matron Margaret Burt and hospital medical staff highlighted how doctors sometimes felt that their authority

2310-562: The face of opposition from her family and the restrictive social code for affluent young English women. As a young woman, Nightingale was described as attractive, slender, and graceful. While her demeanour was often severe, she was said to be very charming and to possess a radiant smile. Her most persistent suitor was the politician and poet Richard Monckton Milnes , but after a nine-year courtship, she rejected him, convinced that marriage would interfere with her ability to follow her calling to nursing. In Rome in 1847, she met Sidney Herbert ,

2380-463: The family's homes at Embley, Hampshire , and Lea Hurst, Derbyshire . Florence inherited a liberal-humanitarian outlook from both sides of her family. Her parents were William Edward Nightingale, born William Edward Shore (1794–1874) and Frances ("Fanny") Nightingale ( née Smith; 1788–1880). William's mother Mary ( née Evans) was the niece of Peter Nightingale, under the terms of whose will William inherited his estate at Lea Hurst, and assumed

2450-1054: The first nursing school, the Nightingale Training School, at St Thomas' Hospital on 9 July 1860. The first trained Nightingale nurses began work on 16 May 1865 at the Liverpool Workhouse Infirmary. Now called the Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery , the school is part of King's College London . In 1866 she said the Royal Buckinghamshire Hospital in Aylesbury near her sister's home Claydon House would be "the most beautiful hospital in England", and in 1868 called it "an excellent model to follow". Nightingale wrote Notes on Nursing (1859). The book served as

2520-807: The first recipient of the Royal Red Cross . In 1904, she was appointed a Lady of Grace of the Order of St John (LGStJ) . In 1907, she became the first woman to be awarded the Order of Merit . In the following year she was given the Honorary Freedom of the City of London . Her birthday is now celebrated as International May 12th Awareness Day . From 1857 onwards, Nightingale was intermittently bedridden and suffered from depression. A recent biography cites brucellosis and associated spondylitis as

2590-597: The fund and the Duke of Cambridge was chairman. In her 1856 letters she described spas in the Ottoman Empire , detailing the health conditions, physical descriptions, dietary information, and other vital details of patients whom she directed there. She noted that the treatment there was significantly less expensive than in Switzerland. Nightingale had £45,000 at her disposal from the Nightingale Fund to set up

2660-754: The lot of women everywhere, Nightingale believed that women craved sympathy and were not as capable as men. She criticised early women's rights activists for decrying an alleged lack of careers for women at the same time that lucrative medical positions, under the supervision of Nightingale and others, went perpetually unfilled. She preferred the friendship of powerful men, insisting they had done more than women to help her attain her goals, writing: "I have never found one woman who has altered her life by one iota for me or my opinions." She often referred to herself as, for example, "a man of action" and "a man of business". However, she did have several important and long-lasting friendships with women. Later in life, she kept up

2730-411: The media at the time, but critics agree on the importance of her later work in professionalising nursing roles for women. In 1860, she laid the foundation of professional nursing with the establishment of her nursing school at St Thomas' Hospital in London. It was the first secular nursing school in the world and is now part of King's College London . In recognition of her pioneering work in nursing,

2800-401: The military field hospital she managed. While frequently credited as the creator of the polar area diagram, it is known to have been used by André-Michel Guerry in 1829 and Léon Louis Lalanne by 1830. Nightingale called a compilation of such diagrams a " coxcomb ", but later that term would frequently be used for the individual diagrams. She made extensive use of coxcombs to present reports on

2870-768: The mills in both Newtown and Llanidloes . The company bought the Cambrian Mill complex in 1866. The company modernized the factory so it was the most advanced facility in Wales. It diversified into making plain and coloured flannels, shawls, whittles, hose and tweeds . The company expanded further in 1873 and became the Welsh Woollen Manufacturing Company, and made further upgrades to the Cambrian Mills. The company brought in experienced tweed workers from Scotland. A row of brick houses

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2940-441: The name and arms of Nightingale. Fanny's father (Florence's maternal grandfather) was the abolitionist and Unitarian William Smith . Nightingale's father educated her. A BBC documentary reported that "Florence and her older sister Parthenope benefited from their father's advanced ideas about women's education. They studied history, mathematics, Italian, classical literature, and philosophy, and from an early age Florence, who

3010-650: The nature and magnitude of the conditions of medical care in the Crimean War to Members of Parliament and civil servants who would have been unlikely to read or understand traditional statistical reports. In 1859, Nightingale was elected the first female member of the Royal Statistical Society . In 1874 she became an honorary member of the American Statistical Association . Nightingale Pledge The Nightingale Pledge , named in honour of Florence Nightingale ,

3080-550: The other hand, Seacole told the French chef Alexis Soyer that "You must know, M Soyer, that Miss Nightingale is very fond of me. When I passed through Scutari, she very kindly gave me board and lodging." The arrival of two waves of Irish nuns, the Sisters of Mercy , to assist with nursing duties at Scutari met with different responses from Nightingale. Mary Clare Moore headed the first wave and placed herself and her Sisters under

3150-608: The owl Athena. Nightingale often carried the owl in her pocket, until the pet died (shortly before Nightingale left for Crimea). Her writings on Egypt, in particular, are testimony to her learning, literary skill, and philosophy of life. Sailing up the Nile as far as Abu Simbel in January 1850, she wrote of the Abu Simbel temples , "Sublime in the highest style of intellectual beauty, intellect without effort, without suffering ... not

3220-652: The poor condition of the facilities, the British Government commissioned Isambard Kingdom Brunel to design a prefabricated hospital that could be built in England and shipped to the Dardanelles . The result was Renkioi Hospital , a civilian facility that, under the management of Edmund Alexander Parkes , had a death rate less than one tenth of that of Scutari. Stephen Paget in the Dictionary of National Biography asserted that Nightingale reduced

3290-506: The practice of my calling. I shall be loyal to my work and devoted towards the welfare of those committed to my care. 1935 revised version (changes from original italicized): I solemnly pledge myself before God and in the presence of this assembly to pass my life in purity and to practise my profession faithfully. I will abstain from whatever is deleterious and mischievous, and will not take or knowingly administer any harmful drug. I will do all in my power to maintain and elevate

3360-427: The presence of this assembly to pass my life in purity and to practise my profession faithfully. I shall abstain from whatever is deleterious and mischievous, and shall not take or knowingly administer any harmful drug. I shall do all in my power to maintain and elevate the standard of my profession and will hold in confidence all personal matters committed to my keeping and all family affairs coming to my knowledge in

3430-514: The pressure her programme of reform placed on him. Nightingale also much later had strong relations with academic Benjamin Jowett , who may have wanted to marry her. Nightingale continued her travels (now with Charles and Selina Bracebridge ) as far as Greece and Egypt. While in Athens, Greece, Nightingale rescued a juvenile little owl from a group of children who were tormenting it, and she named

3500-489: The sanitary design of hospitals and the introduction of sanitation in working-class homes (see Statistics and Sanitary Reform ). According to some secondary sources, Nightingale had a frosty relationship with her fellow nurse Mary Seacole , who ran a hotel/hospital for officers. Seacole's own memoir, Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands , records only one, friendly, meeting with her, when she asked her for

3570-597: The soldiers. After she returned to Britain and began collecting evidence before the Royal Commission on the Health of the Army, she came to believe that most of the soldiers at the hospital were killed by poor living conditions. This experience influenced her later career when she advocated sanitary living conditions as of great importance. Consequently, she reduced peacetime deaths in the army and turned her attention to

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3640-561: The standard of care in his 1842–1843 published novel Martin Chuzzlewit in the figure of Sarah Gamp as being incompetent, negligent, alcoholic and corrupt. According to Caroline Worthington, director of the Florence Nightingale Museum , "When she [Nightingale] started out there was no such thing as nursing. The Dickens character Sarah Gamp, who was more interested in drinking gin than looking after her patients,

3710-479: The standard of my profession and will hold in confidence all personal matters committed to my keeping and all family affairs coming to my knowledge in the practice of my calling. With loyalty will I aid the physician in his work, and as a missioner of health, I will dedicate myself to devoted service for human welfare. "Practical Nurse Pledge", a modern version based on the "Nightingale Pledge": Before God and those assembled here, I solemnly pledge; To adhere to

3780-495: The start of 1891 the Severn Tweed Company replaced them with much more cost-effective gas motors. However, by the end of the 19th century the mills in Newton were no longer competitive with those in the north of England. There was a disastrous fire in 1910, and another in 1912, after which the mill was not rebuilt. After the Cambrian Mills closed, Newtown was no longer an important woollen industrial centre and many of

3850-659: The workers moved elsewhere. Price-Jones's company remained profitable until the Great Depression . It was sold to a firm in Liverpool in 1938. The site today is the Cambrian Gardens district of Newtown. Florence Nightingale Florence Nightingale ( / ˈ n aɪ t ɪ ŋ ɡ eɪ l / ; 12 May 1820 – 13 August 1910) was an English social reformer , statistician and the founder of modern nursing . Nightingale came to prominence while serving as

3920-411: The wounded. However, Russell thought the behaviour was unladylike, and invented an alternative, leading to "The Lady with the Lamp". In the Crimea on 29 November 1855, the Nightingale Fund was established for the training of nurses during a public meeting to recognise Nightingale for her work in the war. There was an outpouring of generous donations. Sidney Herbert served as honorary secretary of

3990-547: Was a prodigious and versatile writer. In her lifetime, much of her published work was concerned with spreading medical knowledge. Some of her tracts were written in simple English so that they could easily be understood by those with poor literary skills. She was also a pioneer in data visualisation with the use of infographics , using graphical presentations of statistical data in an effective way. Much of her writing, including her extensive work on religion and mysticism , has only been published posthumously. Florence Nightingale

4060-405: Was being challenged by these new style Nightingale matrons. This was not an isolated episode and other matrons experienced similar issues, such as Eva Luckes . In the 1870s, Nightingale mentored Linda Richards , "America's first trained nurse", and enabled her to return to the United States with adequate training and knowledge to establish high-quality nursing schools. Richards went on to become

4130-417: Was being delivered by overworked medical staff in the face of official indifference. Medicines were in short supply, hygiene was being neglected, and mass infections were common, many of them fatal. There was no equipment to process food for the patients: This frail young woman ... embraced in her solicitude the sick of three armies. After Nightingale sent a plea to The Times for a government solution to

4200-544: Was born on 12 May 1820 into a wealthy and well-connected British family at the Villa Colombaia , in Florence , Tuscany, Italy, and was named after the city of her birth. Florence's older sister Frances Parthenope had similarly been named after her place of birth, Parthenope , a Greek settlement now part of the city of Naples . The family moved back to England in 1821, with Nightingale being brought up in

4270-456: Was built in 1875 for these workers and their families. In 1879 Pryce-Jones opened a large Royal Welsh Warehouse opposite the Newtown railway station. Later the Newtown woollen industry again went into decline. The Welsh Woollen Manufacturing Company had over-extended itself and went bankrupt in 1882, and the Severn Tweed Company acquired the Cambrian Mill. There was no local coal to power the machinery, and importing coal added to costs. Also, there

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4340-582: Was created in Carrara marble by Francis William Sargant in 1913 and placed in the cloister of the Basilica of Santa Croce , in Florence, Italy. Florence Nightingale exhibited a gift for mathematics from an early age and excelled in the subject under the tutelage of her father. Later, Nightingale became a pioneer in the visual presentation of information and statistical graphics . She used methods such as

4410-439: Was incapable of boring anyone." Her behaviour was said to be exasperating and eccentric and she had little respect for upper-class British women, whom she regarded generally as inconsequential. She said that if given the choice between being a woman or a galley slave, then she would choose the freedom of the galleys. She generally rejected female company and spent her time with male intellectuals. Clarke made an exception, however, in

4480-545: Was no direct railway to carry the flannels to the South Wales Coalfield , where they would have been in demand. Instead, they had to be shipped to northern England, where there was intense competition from local mills. The Pryce-Jones "Welsh" flannel was eventually mostly made in Rochdale , Lancashire. The steam engines were very inefficient and used 8 pounds (3.6 kg) of slack coal per horsepower/hour. At

4550-407: Was only a mild exaggeration. Hospitals were places of last resort where the floors were laid with straw to soak up the blood. Florence transformed nursing when she got back [from Crimea]. She had access to people in high places and she used it to get things done. Florence was stubborn, opinionated, and forthright but she had to be those things in order to achieve all that she did." Though Nightingale

4620-413: Was the first of its kind ever to be written. It appeared at a time when the simple rules of health were only beginning to be known, when its topics were of vital importance not only for the well-being and recovery of patients, when hospitals were riddled with infection, when nurses were still mainly regarded as ignorant, uneducated persons. The book has, inevitably, its place in the history of nursing, for it

4690-612: Was the more academic of the two girls, displayed an extraordinary ability for collecting and analysing data which she would use to great effect in later life." In 1838, her father took the family on a tour in Europe where she was introduced to the English-born Parisian hostess Mary Clarke , with whom Florence bonded. She recorded that "Clarkey" was a stimulating hostess who did not care for her appearance, and while her ideas did not always agree with those of her guests, "she

4760-583: Was to print after her return): "God called me in the morning and asked me would I do good for him alone without reputation." Later in 1850, she visited the Lutheran religious community at Kaiserswerth-am-Rhein in Germany, where she observed Pastor Theodor Fliedner and the deaconesses working for the sick and the deprived. She regarded the experience as a turning point in her life and issued her findings anonymously in 1851; The Institution of Kaiserswerth on

4830-470: Was very kind to the men and, what is more, to the Officers – and did some good (she) made many drunk". Nightingale reportedly wrote, "I had the greatest difficulty in repelling Mrs. Seacole's advances, and in preventing association between her and my nurses (absolutely out of the question!) ... Anyone who employs Mrs. Seacole will introduce much kindness – also much drunkenness and improper conduct". On

4900-560: Was written by the founder of modern nursing". As Mark Bostridge has demonstrated, one of Nightingale's signal achievements was the introduction of trained nurses into the workhouse system in Britain from the 1860s onwards. This meant that sick paupers were no longer being cared for by other, able-bodied paupers, but by properly trained nursing staff. In the first half of the 19th century, nurses were usually former servants or widows who found no other job and therefore were forced to earn their living by this work. Charles Dickens caricatured

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