The Sun.
London, England, 1854-10-30 00:00:00

MISS NIGHTINGALE.

The following letter, addressed by Mr. Sydney Her-
bert to Miss Nightingale, has been published :

(Copy.)
" Dear Miss Nightingale,—You will have seen in the
papers that there is a great deficiency of nurses at the hos-
pitals at Scutari. The other alleged deficiencies—namely,
of 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 95 men in the whole force—being nearly double
what we ever had before ; and 30 more surgeons went 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 not only in profusion, but by the
ton weight, 15,000 pair of sheets; medicines, wine, arrow-
root, in the same proportion ; aid the only way for ac-
counting for the deficiency at Scutari, if it exists, is that
the mass of the stores went to Varna, and had not been
sent back when the army left for the Crimea ; but four
days would have remedied that. In the meanwhile stores
aro arriving. But the deficiency of female nurses is un-
doubted, none but male nurses having ever been admitted
to military hospitals. It would be impossible to carry
about a large staff of the female nurses with an araty
in the field. But at Scutari, having now a fixed hospital,
no military reason exists against their 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 occasion as this, very inex-
perienced ones. I receive numbers of offers from ladies to
go out, but they are ladies who have no conception of .what
an hospital is, uor of the nature of its duties, and they
would when the time came either recoil from the work, or
ho entirely useless, and consequently, what is worse, en-
tirely in the way ; nor would those ladies probably even
understand the neaessity, especially in a military hospital,
of strict obedience to rule, &c.
" Lady Maria Forester (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 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 daugh-
ters 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 prac-
tical effects may be drawn.
" But the difficulty of finding nurses who are at all
versed in their business is probably best known to Mr.
Hume, and Lady Maria Forester probably has not tested
the willingness of the trained nurses to go, and is incapable
of directing or ruling them. There is but one person in
England that I know of that would be capable of organis-
ing and superintending such a scheme, and I have been
several times on the point of asking you, hypothetically,
if, supposing the attempt were made, you would under-
take to direct it. The selection of the rank and file nurses
will be very difficult ; no one knows that better than your-
self. The difficulty of finding women equal to a task
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after all full of horror, and requiring besides knowledge
and good will, great knowledge and great courage, will
them great; and not the least will be the difficulty of
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military authorities out there. That it is which makes it
o
one with administrative capacity and experience. A num-
berthe hospital at Scutari, would probably after a few days
tbgeuerremsutispi
question
yaithchdeloinlintroducing system among
out and supervise the whole thing? You would, of
course, have plenary authority over all the nurses ; and I
think I could secure you the fullest assistance 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 success of your mis-
sion. On this part of the subject the details are too many
for a letter, and I reserve it for cur meeting ; for, what-
ever decision you take I know you will give me every
assistance and advice. Ido not say one word to press
you. You are the only person who can judge for your-
self which of conflicting or incompatible duties is the first
or the highest; but I think I must not conceal from you
that upon your decision will depend the ultimate success
or failure of the plan. Your own personal qualities, 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 possesses.
If this succeeds, an enormous amount of 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 Mrs. Bracebridge would ge with you, and give
you all the comforts you would require, and which her so-
ciety and sympathy alone could give you. I have written
very long, for the subject is very near my heart. Liz is
writing to Mrs. Bracebridge to tell her what I am. doing.
Igo to town to-morrow morning. Shall I come to you
between three and five ? Will you let me hare a lino 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. Nigtingale 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 con-
sideration of every one, especially in a service where official
rank carries so much weight. This would secure you any
attention and 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 in view;
but they are of importance in themselves, and of every
importance 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
one in accordance with my hopes..—Believe me, dear Miss
Nightingale, ever yours,
" Oct. 15.

"SIDNEY HERBERT."

WHO IS MRS. NIGHTINGALE.

(Front the Examiner.)
Many ask this question, and it has not yet been ade-
quately answered. We reply, then, Dire. Nightingale is
Miss Nightingale, or rather Miss Florence Nightingale,
the youngest daughter and presumptive co-heiress of her
father, William Shore Nightingale of Embley-park,
Hampshire, and the Lea Hurst, Derbyshire. She
moreover, a young lady of singular endowments, both
natural and acquired. In a knowledge of the ancient
languages and of the higher branches of mathematics, in
general art, science, and literature, her attainments are
extraordinary. There is scarcely a modern language
which she does not understand, and she speaks French,
German, and Italian as fluently as her native 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, feminine,
rich, and popular, she holds a singularly gentle and per-
suasive influence over all vritla whom she comes in con-
tact. Her friends and acquaintances are of all classes
and persuasions, but her happiest place is at home, in
the centre of a very large baud of accomplished relatives,
and in simplest obedience to her admiring parents.
Why, then, should a being so highly blessed with all
that should render life bright, innocent, and to a con-
siderable extent useful, forego such palpable and heart-
felt attractions ? Why quit all this to becerae—a nurse ?
From her infancy she has had a yearning affection
for her kind—a sympathy with the weak, the oppressed,
the destitute, the suffering, and the desolate. The
schools and the poor around Lea Hurst and Embley first
saw andifelt her as a visitor, teacher, consoler, ex-
pounder. Then she frequented and studied the schools,
hospitals, and reformatory institutions of London,
Edinburgh, and the continent. Three years ago, when
all Europe had a holiday oa and after the Great
Exhibition, when the highlands of Scotland, the lakes
of Switterlaad, and all the bright spots of the continent
were filled with parties of pleasure, Miss Nightingale
was within the walls of one of the German houses or
hospitals for the care and reformation of the lost and in-
firm. For three long months she was in daily and
nightly attendance, accumulating experience in all the
duties and labours of female ministration. She then re-
turned to be once more the delight of her own happy
home. But the strong tendency of her mind to look
beyond its own circle for the relief of those who nomi-
nally having all, practically have but too frequently none
to help them prevailed ; and therefore, when the hospital
established in London for sick governesses was about to
fail for want of proper management, she stepped forward
and consented to be placed at its head. Derbyshire and
Hampshire were exchanged for the narrow, dreary estab•
lishment in Harley-street, to which she devoted all her
time and fortune. While her friends missed her at as-
semblies, lectures, concerts, exhibitions, and all the en-
tertainments for taste and intellect with which London
in its season abounds, she, whose powers could have
best appreciated these, was sitting beside the bed and
soothing the last complaints of sonic poor dying, home-
less, querulous governess. The homelessness might
not improbably, indeed, result from that very queru-
lousness ; but this is too frequently fomented, if not
created, by the hard, unreflecting folly which regards
fellow-creatures intrusted with forming the minds and
dispositions of its children as ingenious, disagreeable
machines, needing, like the steam-engine, sustenance
and covering, but, like it, quite beyond or beneath all
sympathy, passions, or affections. Miss Nightingale
thought otherwise, and found pleasure in tending those
poor destitute governesses in their infirmities, their sor-
rows, their deaths, or their recoveries. She was sel-
dom seen out of the walls of the institution, and the
few friends whom she admitted found her in the midst
of nurses, letters, prescriptions, accounts, and interrup-
tions. Her health sank under the heavy pressure, but a
little Hampshire fresh air restored her, and the failing
institution was saved.
Meanwhile a cry of distress and for additional comforts
beyond those of mere hospital treatment came homefrom
the East from our wounded brethrea in arms. There
instaatly arose an enthusiastic desire to answer it.
But inexperienced zeal could perform little, and a bevy
of ill-organised nurses might do more harm than good.
There was a fear lest a noble impulse should fail for the
want of a head, a hand, and a heart to direct it. It was
then that a field was opened for the wider exercise of
Miss Nightingale's sympathies, experience, and powers
of command and control. But at what cost ? At the
risk of her own life—at the pang of separation from all
her friends and family, and at the certainty of encoun-
tering hardship, dangers, toils, and the constantly re-
newing scene of human suffering amid all the worst
horrors of war. There are few who would not recoil
from such realities, but Miss Nightingale shrank not,
and at once accepted the request that was made her to
form and control the entire nursing establishment for our
sick and wounded soldiers and sailors in the Levant.
While we write, this deliberate, sensitive, and highly-
endowed young lady is already at her post, rendering
the holiest of woman's charities to the sick, the dying,
and the convalescent. There is a heroism in dashing up
the heights of Alma in defiance of death and all mortal
opposition, and let all praise and honour be, as th
orecaey are,
bestowed upon it ; but there is a quiet fsting
heroism arid largeness of heart in this lady's resolute
accumulation of the powers of consolation, and her de-
voted Application of them, which rank as high, And are