The Sun.
London, England, 1863-09-03 00:00:00

LONDON, THURSDAY, SEPT. 3, 1863.

As practically, as assiduously, as nobly, in her
own sick. chamber, here in England, as formerly in
the field, in the hospitals, and in the barracks of the
East, FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE still labours in the
cause of the British Soldier. Of this, the remark-
able folio Report, recently published by the Royal
Commission appointed to inquire into the Sanitary
Condition of the Army in India, affords the last and
the most signal attestation. It does ao in the form
of a really beautiful and admirable paper comment-
ing upon that Report, a paper contributed by Miss
NIGHTINGALE expressly at the request of the Royal
Commissioners. It will be remembered, of course,
that untii his noble and gentle heart was stricken
motionless by what appeared to us, his survivors, a
singularly premature death, in the very noon of his
distinguished snd honourable career, the late
SIDNEY Lord HERBERT of LEE, presided over the
Royal Commission as its singularly well-selected
Chairman. When removed by death, Lord HERBERT
was succeeded as Chairman of the Commission, it
will be also borne vividly in the popular recollection,
by ono hardly less qualified to discharge the duties
of that office, one no lees conspicuous among con-
temporary statesmen and administrators, than the
noble Lord the member for King's Lynn, formerly
in succession, during his father's last Premiership,
Secretary of State, first of all for the Colonies, and
afterwards for Hindostan. It is to Lord STANLEY,
consequently, that these observations of Miss
NIGHTINGALE have been addressed, to Lord STAN-
LEY, that is, as Chairman of the Royal Commission.
Prefixed to the ponderous folio volume of their own
Report, the Commissioners themselves have said,
by way of brief preface to this remarkable paper
penned by FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE, "We have
given an abstract of the Stational Reports, and
(Report Folio, p. v.) a valuable paper of comments
on those reports, contributed, at the request of the
Commission, by Miss NIGHTINGALE." Happily,
this paper from the hands of England's One Sister
of Charity is not simply buried away in the huge
folio report of the Commissioners. It has been
wisely and beneficently excerpted from those pages,
and has just now been issued in a separate form, as
a brief but substantial publication, accessible to all.*

That the remarks of Miss NIGHTINGALE have
been throughout this paper of hers most patiently
and profoundly well-considered, may be appreciated
upon a mere glance at the interval which elapsed
between the date of the request (11th October,
1861) sent to her by the Royal Commission, and
the date affixed by her (21st November, 1862) to
the close of her elaborate communication in reply.
That is, upwards of a twelvemonth, during which
this patient Friend and Nurse of the British soldier
was musing over the facts furnished to her in the
official reports, while yet those reports were in
manuscript, and—at intervals during her own
sufferings--penning, bit by bit, these thirteen chap-
r or sections into which her running commen-
taries
prol,athave been subdivided. Subdivided, thus,
IY for her own convenience in regard to the
thinking
of
them out systematically, quite as much
as with
any view to the facilitation of labour on the
part of the reader in the way of reference. Section
pro the First is
pos to the evidence—evidence,
it may ho
said, frightful] unanswerable of its
kind—demonstrative oftheyfact that Indian Camps
are peculiarly shhiect
t
the Diseases of Camps—
besides hepatic diseases,
cholera, fevers, diarrhoea,
dysentery. In the Second
Section the humane
critic, commenting upon the only too demonstrable
fact that Indian Stations present the
same Sanitary
Defects as Camps, enumerates as follows the five
principal sources or causes of camp Disease,
Want
k
viz.,
Bad Water, Bad Drainage, Filthy Bezati:sbad-
ness Ventilation, and Surface Overcrowding inbarr
huts and sick wards. Commenting upon the
of the water, Miss NIGHTINGALE says, With
what one might almost call a fearful glimmer of
humour, " Where tests have been used, the corn_
position of the water reads like a very intricate
prescription." The swarming of animal life in it,
being in a manner as nothing compared with the
astounding varieties of chlorides, nitrates, sulphates,
and carbonates. As to the badness of the drainage,
it is remarked that cesspits are spoken of by the
reports as though they were dressing rooms; the
severe and uncompromi,ing analyst of Oese reports
observing that for Bad Drainage we might read,
"No Drainage whatever, in any sense in which we
un.lerstanddrajnage." Among the capital woodcut
illustrations, Eeattered, here and there, among the
letterpress, may be found, at p. 15, a graphic hint
as to what is often the sum total of the Indian

A half-crown volume, bound in cloth, and extending
over less than n hundred pages (Bvo., pp. 92), printed by
Spottiswoode and Co., and published by Mr. Stanford, of
Charing..cross, comprises within it the whole of the,e deeply
interesting and practically suggestive " Observations" by
Miss Nightingale. Not an officer in the British army
iu Ladle) but should iposzess hi;msell of a copy
of it.

Drainage System—a couple of wretched natives,
bearing between them, slung upon their
shoulders, upon a stout bamboo, an open can
of abomination ! As to the filthiness of the bazaars,
it is spoken of as something almost defying descrip-
tion. At one hill station (where there are two such
bazaars) Nynee Tal, a hill station where men are
sent for their health (I) the stench," says Miss
NIGHTINGALE, "is at times overpowering." In
reference to the notorious want of ventilation, it is
here remarked, as impressively as instructively,
that while the reports pronounce the ventilation to
be good if the barracks are not overcrowded—as
the barracks are almost always overcrowded, the
ventilation is nearly as bad as bad can be. Several
well-known barracks in India are then particu-
larized, precisely as they are referred to in the
report : as at Kirkee " scarcely any ventila-
tion ;" at Bombay, "improvement imperative ;" at
Kamptee, "most faulty and deficient ;" at Bellary,
"no windows ; " at Allahabad, and also at Bum
• Dam "very defective," and so on—literally
usque ad
nauseam. Surface-overcrowding, the last-men-
tioned source of camp disease, is then finally com-
mented upon by Miss NIGHTINGALE, and the pre-
valence of that " overcrowding" proved to absolute
demonstration. Sections 111., on Intemperance;
on Diet, and V., on want of Occupation
consideration
—the are each ofthem peculiarly deserving of id
—the large two-pagestraailtyionmuepaonnstoh; latter point
(pp. 40-41), entitled D
being peculiarly
nddiraanugohffitcsmeran.of
and Amusement : India passim,"
suggestive and instructive.
rank, we are told, was the truthful A n
The scene depicted is from the life. It is an in-
terior. The dormitory in an Indian Barrack. The
men in their shirt sleeves. Some naked from the
lolling, lounging, sitting
waist upwards. Lying,
on their beds—those beds, in or on which, we are
told, they spend 18 out of the 24 hours, six only up
or out ! Smoking, reading, day-dreaming on the fiat
of their backs, card-playing, chatting, hair-brushing,
shoe-brushing, water-drinking ad libitum. This
chapter or section (about the longest in the book) is
among them all one worthiest of the hand of FLOR-
ENCE NIGHTINGALE. It is full of good practical sug-
gestions in the way of improvement, and this, too,
an improvement not desultory but systematic. So
also, as any one might conjecture would surely be
the case, is it with Section the Sixth, the one on
Hospitals. The remaining seven need only
here be enumerated, Their titles—remembering
all the while whose hand it is that writes t'aem—
will prove to the reflective reader sufficiently ex•
plicit as to their probable purport : to wit, Hill
Stations; Native Lines; Native Towns; Absolute
Perfeetion of Causes of Disease ; Soldiers' Wives;
Statistics, and Sanitary Service. Stich in brief
are, as one may say, the distinctive titles of the
thirteen rays of light directed from these luminous
Sections of FLORENCE NIGHINGALE'S Observations
on the Sanitary State of the Army in India—light
shed by her benign experience as a Soldier's Nurse
in Barrack, Hospital, and Field, full and clear into
the darkest and foulest recesses of the Augean
Stable of our Indian Military Organisation.

The address from the Committee of the Ladies'
Sanatory Association on Dressmaking is worthy of
notice. It commences by saying that the death of a
young dressmaker, in the midst of the busy London
season, has called public notice to the condition of
her class. In 1842 it is said that a Royal Commis-
sion made evident the hardships that thousands of
young women were enduring from overwork, and
also from over-crowding, but in spite of every effort
that has been made since then, it is to be feared
that many thousands are still suffering from the

same sad causes as twenty years ago. The next
passage states an incontrovertible fact, that, how-
ever, seems little heeded, that the remuneration of
needlework is so little that needlewomen cannot
earn sufficient during the ordinary time, and are,
therefore, forced to undertake extra work. If few
actually drop down exhausted before our eyes, it is
said, yet the evil is wrought in their frames, and
the present system of dressmaking could not be
kept up if it were not for the constant arrival of
fresh workers from the country, of whom not a few
go back with broken health, and even sink into a
premature grave, " the one season taking the whole
summer of their young lives." This is, in truth,
a deplorable state of things, and yet its veracity
is attested by all experience on the subject. It is
high time that some decisive measures should be
adopted to check the continuance of this system.
The committee seem to have gone to the root of the
evil, so far as they possibly can, and they have
sounded the depths, as it were, of the nefarious
system in vogue. It is said that even a moderate
amount of sedentary labour would prove most inju-
rious if no exercise is taken to relieve its monotony.
These unhappy victims of fashion rarely pass the
threshold except on Sundays. The close rooms in
which they work and sleep tend to enervate their
exhausted frames still more, and added to this
there is an yearly strain on them, during the
mouths of the
' " season " w
hours' work is required. Thefroml6
committeto
committee
seek
kltSo
examine into the causes of such disastrous and de-
plorable effects ensuing from a trade which is in
itself perfectly healthy ; and whose fault is it P they
ask. "We cannot help it," say the employers,
" for ladies will have their dresses to the day; they
give short notice and take long credit, and it iet is hard
to pay our way and please them." ‘
help it," say the ladies, " we are willing to give a
good price for good work ; but we cannot take
charge of work and workrooms."
" We can help it
least of all," say the poor girls, "for we must keepour
situations, or starve—or worse. To these replies
the committee address themselves in an effective
manner. To the ladies it is urged that much de-
pends on them, and that they can do a great deal
if they will only choose to do so. They can easily
inform themselves regarding the style of the houses
they employ—they can abstain from unreasonable
demands; e
demands; and, above all, they can pay their
One employer informed the committee that no less
than five thousand pounds were due to him, and
that thus he had been brought to the verge of bank-
ruptcy. To the employers it is said that self-
interest would be promoted by increasing the com-
forts of their employees. Better work is done and
more efficient assistance rendered altogether by
those who obtain sufficient rest than by those who
are harassed and worried by incessant toil and
Wabalnetstoafte sleep.o f
things
i A wholesome atmosphere would
also tend considerably
n gswith
ho
regardconduce t
ot to
oar
kmworoemdenesiirn-
general. Likewise, it is most truly said, that more
liberal outdoor assistance at the outset of the season
would be a real gain in the end, as thus the "skilled
inmates " would be kept uwptkowaomsetant, eaoffeewnergy
and efficiency. To the or
re-
marks are directed. It is said that no regular
reform can be introduced unless the workers can
combine to procure whet is right forthemseltvheesy.
They should therefore reflect what injuries
incur from the present arrangement--injuries that
are, for the most part, irreparable, as health, once
broken, can never be fully restored. Their
parents or guardians should be most careful as to
where, and with whom, they apprentice them. A
most wise suggestion is made, that where a com-
fortable place cannot be got in the needlework
line, owing to the overcrowding that prevails in

that branch, some other employment should be
sought after. It seems strange that this idea has
not occurred to those who have the charge of young
girls. It stands to sense that the more any one
employment is chosen the less remuneration it pro-
duces, and the smaller share of comfort accrues to
its followers. If they learned to write well and to
keep accounts they would be able to get some ex-
cellent situations in shops ; and in their own voca-
tion, if they were more skilled, they could obtain
greater preferment, or even undertake business
themselves. Ladies, it is said, might do much by
encouraging those houses which require ready
money, or only give three months' credit.
They might assist the good work by
asking for the services of females in such
engagements as serving in shops, or hairdressing,
in preference to those of men. This excellent ad-
dress concludes by hoping that before another sea-
son has added its victims to this system of cruel
and unnecessary overwork, some of these hints
will be taken and these plans may be given a
trial. It is earnestly to be trusted that such may
be the case, for the present system is in every way
a disgrace to the community, and cannot fail to
produce the most deleterious results. It seems on
reflection that the several courses here suggested are
as wise as any that have been made on the subject,
and they appear to embrace all the needful points
of the question. The opulent classes who create
the necessity for this employment, the mercantile
managers who engage so many hands, and they to
whom is entrusted the task of providing for the
young, who must labour for themselves, have all
a heavy responsibility resting upon them. Be it
theirs to acknowledge the errors into which they
have fallen, and to endeavour as speedily as possible
to rectify the faults that may have been unwit-
tingly committed, but which entail serious conse-
quences on a large portion of the community.

Not the least curious of the additions made to our
store of knowledge by the adventurous researches
of Captains SPEKE and GRANT are the pictures of
races and kingdoms in the interior of the African
continent, who had never previously looked on a
white man. Great as were the obstacles offered by
Nature to the progress of the travellers, formidable
as were the difficulties which they encountered
from the absence of means of conveyance of pro-
visions and other necessaries, and serious as were
the risks to which the climate exposed them, the
uncertainty and greed of the native rulers was no
insignificant item in their catalogue of troubles.
The account given by Captain GRANT, at a recent
meeting of the British Association, while arresting
the unflagging attention of his hearers by its
novelty, its interest, and its entertaining features,
could not fail to impress them with a sense of the
arduous nature of the undertaking which those
enterprising Englishmen have carried to a success-
ful termination. The travellers were not in a
position to be independent of the native chiefs,
whose power is usually despotic, and in whose
domains a human life is held as of little or no value.
It would not have troubled the slumbers of these
miniature despots had the bold white men paid
with their lives the penalty of their intrusion, and
the populace would not certainly have cared to
interpose on behalf of the strangers. The goods
which they carried offered dazzling temptations to
the eyes of the savages, and it was extremely diffi-
cult to avoid giving mortal offence by refusing the
demands of these insatiable monarchs without
sacrificing all in their possession. One of them con-
trived to reduce the party to subjection by forbid-
ding his people to sell them any of the necessaries
of life. This ingenious method of extortion pro-
duced the desired Effect, and obtained for the in-
genious man ce avrer the rifle, ammunition, and other
articles be desired. It was as dangerous to be too
friendly as to be on bad teams, for Captain GRANT
tells us that, after staying some time with an old
Sultanin the Land of the Moon, his host became
unwilling
to part with so useful and entertaining a
companion,tw lastaanay fromd three months were lost before he
could
R A inconveniently
pr
pre a
edoleave,
but
host. get
A
Captain
but en the very day of his departure the SULTAN,
dWhoseodfri gn
the
ety did
p orte
rnso
with
t ha interferesti
stick,
an withd having ai
vi
nage activity,
appa-
rently heard that important part of the English
lcaowde,
wh
he iheehl ps
eady sht
ihma
st
epl
fo stsoe s
os inoen
oi sf nti
hn
ee pointsrifles,
wo fh
ehhe
the traveller had to wrest from him by force, pay-
ing at the same time additional presents. A King
in his own country, however, was not to be so easily
eluded, and accordingly two days after, while the
train was marching on, an armed mob sprung up
on every side, whoseanitssics amused Captain GRANT
bandvery mofu c
highwaymen
until
d eeonvterbeyd thathis Majesty
theywertehea
SULTAN, and a very short time sufficed to ransack
every lead, and to convert the stately line of 200
porters into two or three dejected followers, with
baggage proportionately shrunk. No redress could

be obtained from a King who had openly helped
himself to a rifle, but he suffered Captain GRANT
to depart with whole bones, which, under the cir-
cumstances, was perhaps as much as could be ex-
pected. After this experience it was somewhat

alarming to pass into the domains of a King who
possessed the honourable distinction of being re-
markable for his avarice even among African chiefs.

Thanks to the old SULTAN from whom they had
first escaped, Captain GRANT and his followers
were bat ill provided with the usual gifts, but suc-

ceeded in passing safely through the country at a
cost of only half their goods. Their appearance
among this people excited the greatest attention,
being the first white men seen there, and
the watching to which they were subjected

In consequence grew inconveniently officious.
En this fact they were also regarded with consider-

able awe, although some thieves tried to get into
their tent at night, for which they paid the penalty
of their lives. The death of these thieves was
taken as a proof that the new corners were
magicians, and they were fortunately left unmo-
lested in consequence. Another of the rulers
afforded a most favourable contrast, and shows
us that the capacities of the African have been
underrated. In some parts the inhabitants are
distinguished for their amiability and intelligence.
Their curiosity at the sight of articles of European
manufacture, and their interest in pictures of Eng-
lish life &c., some degree of aptitude for
cultivation
otand improvement. Still the childish-
nessas of the savage clings to them. The KING, who
was the intellectual of all the Africans Capt.

GRANT encountered, at once appropriated a toy
which was made for his child for his own amuse-

ment. This King is a favourable exception to the
reckless disregard of life which is common in the
lower orders of humanity, and which is decidedly
apparent among these African tribes. The King
of DAHOMEY has gained an unenviable notoriety by
his wholesale slaughters, but we hear of another

monarch of whom it is commonly said that he never
looks bright until a few executions have come off•

"Not a day passed," says Captain SPEiE, " with-

out our hearing of, or actually seeing, some poor
victim. The old feudal custom appears to
exist in this part, and any dereliction of duty
15 punished most severely. A common punish-
ment is, cutting and maiming their hands or
ears, and the KING, seeing that one of Captain 1