Florence NIGHTINGALE
The Real Florence NIGHTINGALE
soldiers. She secured appou. Royal Commission Barracks and Hospitals. and herself placed her views before the leading men of the time. Even, the War Office and its methods she attacked. Yet this is perhaps h insignificant portion her work compared with her greatest labour, which sought to reform the whole hospital and nursing system of tfif country. “Miss Nightingale was the founder of modern nursing because made public opinion perceive, and act upm. the perception, that nursing was art, and must be raised to the status a trained profession. That was the essence the matter. Other things, such the opening nursing to higher social strata, the better payment nurses, etc., though important and interesting, were only rc- But this did’not end workaeseciatod with our military organisation. The health of the army in India, which another Royal Commission, net attracted her energies, and, despite tion, oho not only persuaded the Commission to adopt her views, but saw to it that the report was not pigeon-holed, as official dignitaries would have done but for her prompt action. Her work consultant to the War Office, sbe missed her friend Sidney Herbert, her attack our workhouse system, and host later activities are opened up to us Sir Edward Cook, who, having unfolded the real Flerenco Nightingale then turns to the period after 1872, when literary work provided solace for one who, into her years of life, had crowded m more of labour hardship, and zeal for inform than any her sex before her. gain glimpse of the friendships of great men she enjoyed, of the sorrows that’heaped themselves upon her by the loss dear mends, the remarkable activity her mind, and the fact that when the bouth African war broke out, the memories her own great work half century before were reviyed, not only her owj mind, but in that -of the whole country. Sir Edward Cook has given remarkable book of remarkable life. He has not dethroned the Lady with the Lamp from her place of honour our affections, but he has given us, never had before, picture, minute in detail and striking in effect, of an even greater lady, the real Florence Nightingale.
r-Tbo Life of Florence Nlghttegate, by Sir Edward Cook.
Derbyshire Courier – Saturday 22 November 1913
