The Press.
London, England, 1854-11-04 00:00:00

MISS NIGHTINGALE.

The question, " Who is Mrs. Nightingale'" having
been asked by many, the Examiner last week gave
the following answer :—" Mrs. Nightingale is Miss
Nightingale, or rather Miss Florence Nightingale,
the youngest daughter and presumptive coheiress
of her father, William Shore Nightingale, of Embley-
park, Hampshire, and Lea Hurst, Derbyshire.
She is, moreover, a young lady of singular endow-
ments, both natural and acquired. Iu a knowledge
of the ancient languages, and of the higher branches
of mathematics, in general art, science, and liters•
titre, her attainments are extraordinary. There is
scarcely a modern language which she does not un-
derstand; and she speaks French, German, and
Italian as fluently as her nativo English. She has
visited and studied the various nations of Europe,
and has ascended the Nile to its remotest cataract.
Young (about the age of our Queen), graceful, femi-
nine, rich, and popular, she holds a singularly gentle
and persuasive influence over all with whom she
conies in contact."

The following letter from the Secretary at Wur to
Miss Nightingale has obtained publicity :
Dear Miss Nightingale,—You will have seen in the papers
that there is a great deficiency of nurses at the hospital at
Scutari. The other alleged deficiencies, namely, medical
men, lint, sheets, &c., must, if they have really ever existed,
have been remedied ere this, as the number of the medical
officers with the army amounted to one to every ninety.
five men in the whole force, being nearly double what we
have ever had before ; and thirty more surgeons west out
there three weeks ago, and must by this time, therefore, be at
Constantinople. A further supply went on Monday, and a
fresh batch sail next week. As to medical stores, they
' have been sent out in profusion, but by the ton weight-
-13,000 pair of sheets; medicines, wine, arrowroot, in the
same proportion—and the only way of accounting for the
deficiency at Scutari, if it exists, is that the mass of the
stores went to Varna, and bad not been sent back when
the army left for the Crimea; but four days would have
remedied that. In the meanwhile stores are arriving. But
the deficiency of female nurses is undoubted, none but
male nurses having ever been admitted to military hospi-
tals. It would be impossible to carry about a large staff of
the female nurses with an army in the field. lint at Scu-
tari, having now a fixed hospital, no military reason exists
against the introduction, and I am confident they might be
introduced with great benefit ; for hospital orderlies must
be very rough hands, and most of them, on such an occa-
sion as this, very inexperienced ones. I receive numbers
of offers from ladies to go out, but they are ladies who have
no conception of what a hospital is, nor of the nature of its
duties, and they would when the time came either recoil
from the work or be entirely useless, and consequently, what
is worse, entirely in the way ; nor would those ladies pro-
bably even understand the necessity, especially in a mili-
tary hospital, of strict obedience to rule, &c.
Lady Maria Forrester ( Lord Roden's daughter) has
made some proposal to Dr. Smith, the head of the army
medical department, either to go with, or to send out,
trained nurses. I apprehend she means from Fitzroy-
square, John-street, or some such an establishment. The
Rev. Mr. Hume, once chaplain to the General Hospital at
Birmingham (and better known as the author of the
scheme for transferring the City churches to the suburbs),
has offered to go out himself as chaplain, with two daughters
and twelve nurses. He was in the army seven years, and
has been used to hospitals, and I like the tone of his letter
very much. I think from both of these offers practical
elects may be drawn.
lint the difficulty of finding nurses who are at all versed
in their business is probably best known to Mr Hume, and
Lady Maria Forrester probably has not tested the willing
nets of the trained nurses to go, and is incapable of direct-
ing or ruling them. There is but one person in Eng-
land that I know of who would be capable of organising and
superintending such a scheme, and I have been several
times on the point of asking you, hypothetically, if, sup-
posing the attempt were made, you would undertake to direct
it. The selection of the rank and file of nurses will be
very difficult; no one knows that better than yourself.
The difficulty of finding women equal to a task, after all,
full of horror, and requiring, besides knowledge and good
will, great knowledge and great courage, will be great; the
task of ruling and introducing system among them great;
and not the least will be the difficulty of making the whole
work smoothly with the medical and military authorities
out there. That it is which makes it so important that the
experiments should be carried out by one with administra-
tive capacity and experience. A number of sentimental en-
thusiastic ladies, turned loose into the hospital of Scutari,
would probably, after a few days, be mists a la ports by those
whose business they would interrupt, and whose authority
they would dispute. My question simply is, would ou listen
to the request to go out and super% lac the whole thing?
Yon would, of course, have plenary authority over all the
nurses, and I think 1 could secure you the fullest assis-
tance and co-operation from the medical staff. and you
would also have an unlimited power of drawing on the
Government for whatever you think requisite for the suc-
cess of your mission. On this part of the subject the
details are too many for a letter, and I reserve it for our
meeting, for, whatever decision you take, I know you will
give me every assistance and advice. I d) not say one
word to press you. You are the only per a n who can judge
for yourself which of conflicting or incorm atible duties is
the fiist, or the highest, but I think I must not conceal
from you that upon your decision will dept n I the ultimate
success or 1, lire of the plan. Your own personal quali-
ties, your knowledge, and your power of administration,
and, among greater things, your rank and position in
society, give you advantages in such a work which no other
person ;assesses. If this succeeds an enormous amount of

THE PRESS.

good will be done now, and to persons deserving everything
at our hands, and which will multiply the good to all time.
I hardly like to be sanguine as to your answer. If it were
yes, I am certain the bracebridges would go with you, and
give you all the comforts you would require, and which their
society and sympathy only could give you. I have written
very long, for the subjectis very near my heart. Liz iswriting
to Mrs. liracebridge to tell her what I am doing. I go
back to town to-morrow morning. Shall I come to you
between three and live ? Will you let me have a line at the
War-office to let me know? There is one point which I
have hardly a right to touch upon, but I trust you will
pardon me. If you were inclined to undertake the great
work, would Mr. and Mrs. Nightingale consent? This
work would be so national, and the request made to you
proceeding from the Government, which represents the
nation, comes at such a moment that I do not despair of
their consent. Deriving your authority from the Govern-
ment, your position would ensure the respect and consi-
deration of every one, especially in a service where official
rank carries so much weight. This would secure you any
attention or comfort on your way out there, together with a
complete submission to your orders. I know these things
are a matter of indifference to you, except as far as they
may further the great object you would have iu view ; but
they are of importance in themselves, and of every impor-
tance to those who have a right to take an interest in your
personal position and comfort. I know you will come to a
right and wise decision. God grant it may be in accor-
dance with my hopes '.—Believe me, dear Miss Nightingale,
ever yours, SIDNEY lIEREERT.
October 15.

Miss Nightingale and her staff of nurses embarked
yesterday week at Marseilles in the Vectis for Malta
sod Constantinople. They were everywhere received
in their transit through France with demonstrations
of sympathy and respect. The Semaphore de
Marseilles contains the following account of their
departure
The war in the East has not only exhibited the courage
of English and French soldiers, but has also given rise to
acts of the most sublime devotion on the part of the
weaker sex, who know so well how to fulfil acts of Christian
charity. The arrival of fifty-five ladies, who volunteered to
proceed to the. East to attend uu the sick and wounded,
has caused a profound sensation in our city. The Times
expressed its regret a short time since that the English
nation did not follow the example set by our heroic Sisters
of Charity. We find that the appeal has not been made in
vain. Some years ago a young lady, Miss Nightingale,
founded in London an establishment for nurses, and she
has undertaken to exercise her Christian charity on a
theatre exposed to more danger and under more trying cir-
cumstances. From all we could learn of Miss Nightingale
and her companions, we are convinced that she is equal, if
not superior, to this undertaking, to which the English
Government has given its support. Miss Nightl-e-i-
-possesses every advantage this world can afford. She is
young, rich, and in possession of a fortune of 30,0001 ; she
has nevertheless devoted herself to au existence of self-
denial. Moved by the sufferings of her countrymen in the
East, she resolved to follow the sublime example of our
Sisters of Charity. With that view she left London to seek
a new theatre where she might display her charity and
benevolence. The Roman Catholic religion, which has to
sustain its ancient reputation for charity, also furnished
its honourable contingent of young English ladies. Twelve
nuns from the convent at Norwood, under the charge of
their superioreas, an Irish lady, have also volunteered to
accompany Miss Nightingale. Charity alone can effectually
smooth down all differences in religiuu. For a long time
past Sisters of Charity, acting under a pious inspiration.
have been in the habit of attending the sick and suffering.
This is the neutral ground chosen by the Norwood nuns
and the companions of Miss Nightingale for emulation. An
English priest, the Rev. Mr. W'heble, has already set
them the example. This clergyman gave his services
wherever they were required, without asking of what per-
suasion the person was who stood in need of them. At
three o'clock to•day these ladies traversed our city to take
passage in the Vedic This vessel, which generally plies
I between Marseilles and Malta, has been placed at the dis-
posal of these charitable ladies by the Peninsular Company,
midis to convey them to Constantinople. The commander,
Captain Powell, as well as the crew, received them with
every mark of respect. Every one admired the simple and
becoming costume of these women, particularly that of
Miss Nightingale, who from her ladylike manners and ap-
pearance might be taken for a Parisienne, She wore &brown
dress, a grey shawl, with a mantle of the sante colour, and
a black bonnet, altogether in harmony with the Christian
mission ~he has undertaken. The Roman Catholic ladies
where habited in their conventual dress—a white robe and
black cap.
Amongst the certificated nurses who have left
under the charge of Miss Nightingale is Miss
Erskine, eldest daughter of the Dowager Lally
Erskine, of Pwll-y.crochan, North Wales. Two sis-
ters of Mr. G. 0. Higgins, M.P. for Mayo, are also
about to depart for Scutari.
Twenty-four Sisters of Charity have just taken
their departure in the Lycurgate, from Marseilles,
for Alexandria.

THE TESTIMONIALS TO THE BEV. ROBERT WHISTON,
MA., head master of the Cathedral Grammar School,
Rochester, in acknowledgment of his eflbrts in the
cause of cathedral reform, and purchased by public
subscription, were presented to that gentleman yes-
terday week. The deputations from London, Man-
chester, Liverpool, Derby, and other places asseml le 1
on that day at Mr. WW piston's residence, and, having
been duly introduced by the Mayor of Rochester, the
complimentary ceremonies appropriate to the occa-
sion were duly completed.