New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1910-08-15

was the unanimous choice of a large gath
erfng as the one most deserving Of the
gratitude of the nation for services per-
formed during the Crimean conflict
II was at a dinner given a few months
after the end of the fighting in honor OF
the officers who had distinguished them
selves that the host, Lord Stratford. arose
and announced that he would like to have
an expression of opinion on that point
Recognizing that some might feel deli-
cacy in expressing their opinion PUBLICLY
he had slips of paper distributed ana eacn
was asked TO write his choice. Wneh aI'
had been returned and examined Lord
Stratford found that the choice had peeh
unanimous.
The name which appeared on the slips
was not that of a statesman or Seneral'
it was not even the name OF man vi
each slip was the name of Florence Nlsht
ingale. a. recognition OF the womanly tact
and sympathy which had solved problem
frequently considered greater than the TAX
ing of Sebast0poi-
The opening of the Crimean War found
Florence Nightingale in charge of a nome
for infirm and invalid governesses IN Lon
don, Years before she had turned 10 what
was to be her life work, and during Pc
Rod of thirteen years had devoted her at
tention and energy to the organization ana
Improvement of hospitals She had visited
all the hospitals Of London, Edinburgh ana
Dublin; all the hospitals OF Paris. where
she studied with the Sisters of Charity: at
Kaiserwerth. on the Rhine, where she Was
twice in training as a nurse; the hospitals
ar Berlin and others in Germany; at Lyons
Rome. Brussels. Constantinople and Alex
,,,o all n FTenCH
and Sardinians.
This was the career laid out by one who
had been born TO wealth and influence
and had received every advantage which
money and education could supply. Born
In 1870 in Florence from which she received
her name. she was the younger daughter
of a Sheffield banker named Shone. who
took the name of Nightingale in accord
ance with the terms of the will of one
Peter Nightingale, whose property fell TO
him.
Work in the Scutari Hospital.
In 1884, when every mail added new hor-
rors to the situation in the Crimea, Miss
Nightingale wrote to the government, Of
fering her services, and saying that she
thought the soldiers needed good nursing
such as only women could give them At
the same time a letter was on its way to
her from Sir Sidney Herbert of the War
Department who, with the feeling that it
was "a woman's work. and there is one
woman in England who can set this right,
wrote and asked Miss Nightingale to go to
the East and organize q nursing service
in the great hospital at SCutari.
At that time the death rate at Scutari was
AZ per cent. while in the KuluN Hospital il
rose to 81 per cent. The troops remained
inactive, decimated by cholera and other
diseases There were more than thirteen
thousand men sick in tn hospitals. -Four
patients out of every five who underwent
hospital amputation died from gangrene,
This was the situation that confronted
England The nation was kindied 20 a pas
sion of mingled wrath and pity. More than
II 900 900 was poured into various relief
funds, medical supplies were sent out by
the ton, and the medical staff was multi
piled until there a doctor TO every one
hundred soldiers. The trouble, il was said
lay not with a deficiency of supplies. but
lack of brains and method in their use.
Florence Nightingale supplied the brains
which directed the method of their use
Less than a week later she and a ma rty
of nearly fifty women started for the
Crimea, where they arrived on the night be-
| fore the battle of Inkerman. From then
| on she ruled Scutari. She developed an