The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat., 1920-05-25
FOUNDER OF MODERN NURSING
FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE, BORN 1920
~ War, Nursing Unit

One hundred years ago, on May II,
| 1920, was born at Florence, Italy, in
the high-walled rambling Villa Colon
! baia near the Porta Romano, an Eng
lish girl-baby, Florence Nightingale,
whose far-seeing practical genius for
Organization and dynamic, tireless per-
sonality were to revolutiionize the
care of the sick. until today millions
of soldiers and civilians sick in hos
pitfalls we'll may call her blessed.
| Like thousands of other English
girls of her lineage and position, Flor
ence Nightingale accompanied her
mother in the calls which every gen
tlewoman made to the sick and needy
within her parish. The younger
daughter grew up in the usual round
of parties, guests, seasons at Mayfair.
friends and gaiety which characterized
perhaps the most interesting phase of
English society--the life of the veal
| thy county aristocracy.
In her close-written diary, Miss
| Nightingale has left a record of her
teens and early twenties, spent in
leisurely travel among the Chateauy
| of France, the Riviera, Switzerland,
and Italy; of opera and court 'oalls
at Rome; of meetings of scientists,
I, scholars, celebrities, of famous Paris
salons; of growing dissatisfaction at
the emptiness of her days; OF spirit
ual revolt which made her mode OF
life seem a gilded cage holding pris-
oner the eager soul that yearned Tor
service. Nothing, however, satlSned
her longing for service which soon
crystallized into desire to enter Sal
isbury hospital.
The Call to Be Nurse.
Had she announced her intention to
enter domestic service she could not
have Mortified her family to greater
extent. And small wonder! 10 De
a hospital nurse" seventy years ago
was an unheard of desire. Such per
sons were usually coarse, ignorant ola
women without even the rudlmentarv
knowledge of cleanliness.
After six years of spiritual strne'
Miss Nightingale prevailed upon ner
family to allow her to enter the schooi
of Deaconesses at Kaiserworth, Ger
MANY. where Thedor Fliedner and his
wife had founded an infant school,
penitentiary and orphan asylum
normal school and hospital OF one
hundred beds. Here was the only
place in Europe where women coulu
receive training as nurses WITHOUT
arousing a storm of criticism. III thlS
place of conservation, clean, "en-or'
dered and simple almost to the polnt
of roughness, she describes the three
months of her.training as the happiest
of her life.
Miss Nightingale's first situation
was that of superintendent or Harley
street hospital London, /an estapilsh-
ment for gentlewomen during hlness'
and found herself fairly launched upon
her chosen work.
The Crimea.
Thirteen months from her first day
at the Harley street hospital the ctll
to active war service sounded 1or
Miss Nightingale The Crlmean war
broke out: $4,000 British troops land-
ed at Scutari; the heights OF Anna
were stormed; and reports OF the col
lapse of the medical hospitals before
the influx of sick and wounded oecaile
known. England was stirred 10 tne
depths by the London Times dlspatch-
es of it's special correspondent. fup
i,ic opinion rose higher and hlgner
against the lack of preparedness Whlch
allowed the sick and wounded 10 uie
by hundreds, until subscription tuno
was quickly raised by the Times
which also published Oh October IA
letter asking: Have we no Sisters
of Charity? There are numbers or
able. bodied and tender-hearted Engllsh
women who would joyfully and with
alacrity 20 out to devote themselves to
nursing the sick and wounded IL they
could be assembled for that purpose
and placed under proper protectlon.
Who can say whether it-was coincl-
dence or fate which had prepared Flor
ence Nightingale, trained, experienced
in administration, mature yet still
voung. and intensely eager to serve;
and had placed Sidney Herbert, a
friend and admirer of Florence Nigh
tingale. as secretary-of-war, with pow
.er to organize nursing unit of the
Crimea? Her offer of service crossed
his letter asking her to undertake the
superintendency of newly-organlzed
female nursing establishment in the
english General military hospital in
Turkey, and seven days later. with
twentv-eight nurses, two devoted
friends, and private funds, Miss Night
;ngale sailed fo the Crimea amid
storm of popular enthusiasm.
Scutari.
On bleak November afternoon, ten
days after the battle of Balaclava and
the day before the battle of Inkerman,
the little expedition which was to re-
yolutionize military nursing, landed at
Scutari a suburb of Constantinople,
where the great yellow Tukish bar
racks. square-towered at each angle
had been given over to receive the
English sick and wounded
Want, neglect, confusion, misery
in every shape and in every degree of
intepsity-filled the endless corridors
and the vast apartments containing
four miles of beds, crushed together
so close that there was but room to
mass between them" Vast sewers
11nderlay the dirty floors. There
were not enough bedsteads, the sheets
were canvas, beer bottles held the
Doei1c coan fnwols hrOnmc