STORIES OF MISS NIGHTINGALE

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 65, 25 June 1910, Page 9

STORIES OF MISS NIGHTINGALE

ONE OF ENGLAND'S NOBLEST WOMEN". On May 12th Miss Florence Nightingale celebrated her ninetieth birthday, and the world wiii rejoice that this lady of noble mind and heroic deeds has been spared so long. What child is there who docs not know her story, and what man and woman has not joined in the chorus of praise and appreciation of her filework?

It is fifty-six years ago—when Miss Nightingale was thirty-lour—that she iperrormed her greatest service to the country in the Crimea. For it must be borne in mind that Miss Nightingale's whole life has -been one long story of ministry and sympathy wherever suffering and sickness were to be found, and that after returning from the Crimea she devoted not only her whole time, but the £50,000 testimonial subscribed by grateful countrymen and countrywomen, to the foundation of homes for ■the training of nurses. 'One wonderfully organised nursing service of to-day is due to her initiative. But it was her work during the Crimean War which proved her to be one of the greatest of Britain's daughters. "She was an angel." Those were the words in their reference to the -'Queen of Nurses" by two Crimean veterans with whom the writer had a chat iecently. "The conditions prevailing at Scutari, the hospital on t'he Bosphorus, before Miss Nightingale arri'ved," said one of them—Mr. Bodger, who belonged to the Rifle Brigade—-'were appalling. " DIRTY SHAMBLES." "There was squalor and vermin everywhere. Wounded men died in hundreds because the medical staff was insufficient, medical supplies were 'hung-up, (proper food could not be obtained, while no arrangements had been made for washing or sanitation. But what a difference after Miss Nightingale arrived! Within a short time she had had the •wards washed from top to bottom, established a kitchen and laundry, burnt all the old clothes and bedding—m u -word, transformed Scutari from dirty shambles into a comfortable and wellorganised hospital. Soap, soda, and hot water was the order of the day. She superintended everything, and her" word was law. It was not 'Can this or that be done?' but 'This must be done' and 'That must be done.'

"She was gentle to all sufferers, but -stern when she'considered it necessary to be. And' woe betide the malingerer. He had short shrift at her hands. Discipline she insisted upon. You never knew when she would walk through the wards, and often at night-time, when we thought she had retired, she would come silently through with lamp in hand, giving a word of comfort and praise here, a little instruction there, so that there shouid.be nothing lacking for the comfort of the wounded/

A GODSEND.

"I was in the hospital for some time with frost-ibitten feet, and when I became convalescent assisted in the hospital as an orderly. And I remember that when 'I was well enough to go to my regiment I was provided with a full kit—two of everything—according to Miss Nightingale's instructions. Every mis who left the hospital was treated the same, and the kit proved a gousenti to the majority of us, for we were in a very tattered and torn condition. "Then, again, the Sisters of Mercy who came out with Miss 'Nightingale seemed as though they couhl not do too much for us. Shortly before I left the hospital I found myself with a couple of pounds. 'lt was of no use to me. I could not spend the money, and there was a danger of losing it. I therefore decided to send it home to the old people. Finally, I explained my dilemma to one of the* sisters. She immediately offered to send the money for me, gave me a ceipt for it, and in due course I heard that my parents had received the money."

GIVEN UP BY THE DOCTOR. A stor\* tol ;1 by another old Crimean veteran—Mr. C'orbett—illustrates Miss Nightingale's attachment to the rank and file. A portion of <•„ shell struck C'orbett on the jaw, and inflicted such, terrible injuries that the doctor said there was not the slightest hope. Miss Nighingale differed from the doctor, however, and, rolling up her sleeves, she attended to him ~ herself and .persevered until there was hope. "Thus f owe my life to Miss Nightingale," says Mr. Corbett. Frequently Miss Nightingale handled patients unattended; for such unsightly rases came into the hospital that other nurses could not touch them.

WHAT QUEEN VICTORIA WROTE,

It is a curious fact that when Miss Nightingale returned to England and turned her attention to founding her schools for nurses, asking young women, through the medium of the press, to devote themselves to this work, society was against her. Lady Palmerston pronounced the Nightingale Fund as "great humbug." "The nurses in hospitals," she remarked* "are very good now. Perhaps they do dririk a little; but so -do the ladies' monthly nurses, and nothing can be better than them. Poor people! It must be so tiresome sitting up all night; and if they do drink a little too much, they are turned out and others got." And after this Queen Victoria had written: "We have made Miss Nightingale's acquaintance', and are delighted and verv much struck with her great gentleness, simplicity and wondemilv clear and comprehensve head. I wish we had her in the War Office." However, Miss Nightingale prevailed against prejudice, for which the country has cause to feel distinctly grateful.

When Miss Nightingale—after reading the pathetic accounts of hundreds of soldiers who were dying through want of care and skilful nursing—wrote to LoH Herbert of Lea (then Mr. Sydney Herbert), Secretary of State for War, offering to go out'and organise a staff of nurses for the troops, her letter was crossed bv one from the War Secretary to herself, in which lie emphasised the need for the organisation of a competent nursing staff and concluded bv begging lier to meet the crisis. Within a week of the receipt of the letter she was on her wav to Scutari. Tn her youth Miss Nightingale had a great desire to study mpdicine, and it was because the nvofession was then closed to women that she joined those who started the propaganda for opening the professions to women. She has also been a lifelong advocate of women's suffrage. As'ke'l oil one occasion to aive her reasons, she ssiid: "I have 110 reasons. 'lt seems to me almost self-evi-dent. an axiom, that everv houselioHnr and taxpayer should have a voice in the expenditure of the monev we nav, including, as this does, interests the most vital to a human being."