The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1908-04-10

Will be remembered that not long
2 King EDWARD VII. conferred the
Order of Merit on Miss FLORENCE NIGHT
INGALE. known wherever the English
tongue is spoken as the Lady Of the
Lamp That honor has now been fol-
lowed by a vote Of The Corporation Of the
City of London bestowing upon her the
freedom of the city, a distinction never
before received by q woman except in
the case Of the late Baroness CoUTTs,
Not only in England but in the United
States and wherever the trained nurse
| has become an institution intelligent
men and women will applaud the just
though tardy recognition Of the great
humanitarian service rendered by this
pioneer in the reform Of hospital and
sick room attendance. II is scarcely
credible that so vast and benefcent u
change should have been wrought within
the span Of one devoted woman's life,
The London Lancet in an impressive
tribute to Miss N~IGHTINGALE's achieve
ments reminds us Of the frightful state
OF things which prevailed in the British
camp before Sebastopol during the first
stage Of the Crimean war. The So
called hospitals then provided for the
sick or wounded British soldiers we're
literally charnel houses. In a single n
of them 5000 sufferers were huddled to-
gether. Order wa non-eXistent. Clean
liness was neglected. Filth and infection
we're uncOmbated. 0ne-half Of oil the
cases admitted to the hospitals died, and
/! Of those who underwent amputations SO
! per cent. succumbed TO gangrene. OF
intellio It management in the hospital
department there was not a trace. The
| surgeons, of whom an adequate number
were at last cent out, were hampered at
every step by the bonds Of official rou-
tine and by the impossibility Of securing
III attendance for their patients,
Such was the situation when FLORENCE
| NIGHTINGALE and the band Of nurses
| whom she had selected and trained ap-
peared upon the scene and with courage
and patience undertook what seemed
a superhuman task. They introduced
cleanliness where before there had been
filth: order where there had been con-
fusion. II official routine sought 10
trammel them it was brushed aside.
When medical stores were locked up in
obedience to an order that they must be
inspected before being distributed, Miss
| NIGHTINGALE had the doors Of the store
house broken down and took what she
needed for the sufferers in the hospitals,
"Of her kindness, says the Lancet, "her
gentleness, her marvellous influence
over her patients, Of her firmness, her
energy, her untiring devotion, we need
not speak. Are they not written in the
book Of the chronicles Of the British ma
tom" Not forgotten, either, is the mod
estv with which she returned to England
after the triumphant completion Of her
task, or the unselishness which prompted
her to refuse all reward for herself when
il was profiered. 1t was characteristic
that when the freedom Of the City Of Lon
don was rendered to her the other day
she declined the offer Of a golden casket
to enclose the address presented to her
and requested that the money thus saved
should be spent in charity,
II was the money subscribed on her
return from the Crimea, but which she
refused 70 accept for herself, that laid
the foundation Of training schools for
nurses at the principal London hospitals,
Up TO that time even rich persons had to
be nursed by servants ignorant Of the
laws Of health and utterly incompetent
TO perform the duties imposed on them,
Now either in or out Of hospitals the
trained nurse is available to nearly every
body. She il a missionary Of cleanli-
meas and sanitary knowledge. She
brings method and order into the sur
roundings Of the sufferer and is relied
upon by the physician to carry out the
regimen which he %prescribes and by the