Milford chronicle., 1933-05-19
Great Tuberculosis Fight
To Prevent The Disease

meant constant activity, as her job
was by no means done. 1t was neceS-
sary for her to use her prestige, as
well as the knowledge and eXpe-
rienee gained at Soutari, to batter
down further the walls which con-
ventional routine, tradition and red
tape, interposed to the widespread
acceptance of reforms which she
had instituted in the British Army
in Turkey.
One of the first things she did
upon her return to England was to
make a statistical study which re-
vealed the startling fact that the
rate of mortalfey among soldiers
kept in barracks at home i'm peace
times was five times as great as
among civilians living in their own
homes. Why should this be?, she
wondered. She set about to put army
barracks in sanitary order, to or
ganize the statistical departments,
to institute an army medical school,
and to revise army hospital regula-
tions. These things became an ac-
complished fact. Because of the
vision of Florence Nightingale, and
what she had achieved she shortly
became a recognized authority on
hospital construction. In such mat
ters she was called upon for advice
at home and abroad. Her statistical
methods were adopted by the lead
ing hospitals in London. Her ex-
perience at Scutari was turned into
action by instituting training
school for nurses, and today Flor
ence Nightingale is considered the
founder. of modern nursing. Her
work is acknowledged as one of the
great contribution of the century to
the alleviation of human suffering,
ranking with the discovery of an
aesthesia by Sir James Simpson and
asepsis by Sir Joseph Lister.
As great as was the achievements
of Florence Nightingale at Scutari,
where she put into effect well-known
principles of sanitation, and applied
to administrative problems the sim
pie rules of common sense, which
the power of British government
behind her enabled her to enforce,
perhaps her greatest achievement
came after her return to England
when peace had come, with its nat
ural relaxation of public interest,
for il was then that she maintained
her efforts to elevate nursing and
hospital care to higher plane.
If we were today suddenly swept
into great war, with inadequate
nursing and hospital facilities, there
would be women to play the part of
Florence Nightingale, with an cas-
ier task il is true, because of what
she has taught them, but still wom-
en- willing and able to work tire
lessly i'm the face of terrific odds, to
save human lives.
But there are the Florence Night
ingales of peace times who can fol-
low her example in maintaining
singleness of purpose and intensity
of effort in promoting health when
the urgent need for instant action
has Subsided into commonplace
job robbed of all the elements of
the spectacular. There are many
Florence Nightingales doing just
that today; they are unheralded and
unsung; no statues will be erected
to them; their work will live only
in the lives of those they comfort |
ed. There is no activity less likely |
to command the front page OF our
newspapers,or get into the movie
tones, than the nurses who follow !
the vision of Florence Nightingale, |
nurses who devote their entire lives |
to relieving distress.
Since that day in 1908 when Osler |
of Baltimore gave to this country |
the first public tuberculosis nurse,
thousands upon thousands of these
and unsung women have
followed the visitor of Florence
in the care of the tu-
berculosis sick. 1t is the task of
these women, among other things,
to help trace tuberculosis to its
source. That is to say, such a nurse
sets out to help determine from
whom her patient contracted the
disease and to whom he has given
it, for il is a well known fact that
every case of tuberculosis comes
from another, and when one person
in the family circle is found to have
.he disease, the source is another
usually uOI ldt away AhS
1nly safe plan is to see that all mem
lers of the family are given thor
,ugh examination by a competent
physician, thing the public health
Nurse is constantly striving for
The Florence Nightingales Of today
iced all the tact and perseverance
If the Florence Nightingale of the
Jrimea, and the same amount of
ielf dedication, or they could not
persist against in
angible obstacles greater than the
ack of soap and towels, and splints
md bandages.
Yes, there are Florence Nightin-
,ales today, plenty Of them. And
heir deeds shine with lustre
which only obscurity can shed upon
lseful work so commonplace that