florence nightingale by cecil woodham smith

The Medical Officer for Health: 'Prizes to cottagers for cleanliness are not desirable. Ineffective schemes for doing good aroused no more sympathy in her at the end of her life than at the beginning. She was thoroughly realistic, with that great talent, so rare in reformers, for grasping the main point.

Mama' she wrote about one occasion when she was in fever of work, 'was to lie on two sofas and tell one another not to get tired by putting flowers into water *** I cannot describe to you the impression it made on me.'

Like many another great Victorian she was quite uncharacteristic of our present picture of that age.Īrriving in Paris in 1853 she is described as being 'so thankful to drop being ladylike.' She had no patience whatever with ladies - her mother and sister drove her to the verge of frenzy. Her opponents and overwhelmed them with her encyclopedic knowledge of her field, she despised sentimentality. Brilliant, ruthless, a magnificent organizer, a genius at administration, a negotiator who at once charmed The limbo of Victorian sentimentality in which Florence Nightingale has lingered for so long must have irritated her transient spirit intensely. Woodham-Smith's 'Florence Nightingale' is such a book. 'Queen Victoria,' this is achievement indeed. However, a first biography whose solid scholarship is matched only by its readability and intuitive perception, a biography worthy to stand between David Cecil's 'The Young Melbourne' and Lytton Strachey's Once or twice a year at least a first novel is hailed with such a paean of praise as almost to prepare the reader in advance forĭisappointment. The report recommended that the army enforce stricter regulations for its facilities and that doctors keep better track of their medical statistics in order to finely tune their treatments.FebruMercy Was Her Mission By ELIZABETH JANEWAY If the state wanted to save lives, it had to improve the hygiene, diet, and sanitation at its facilities. Her findings were clear: the conditions at most hospitals were atrocious. The result was a 1,000-page report soberly titled “Notes on Matters Affecting the Health, Efficiency and Hospital Administration of the British Army.” The manuscript was dense with figures, facts, tables, and statistical comparisons. She loved the work, too, writing to a friend that analyzing numbers was “more enlivening than a novel.” While the field of statistics was still rudimentary, she managed to pull valuable information from the spotty data she had. Staying mostly in her room, she poured over reams and reams of reports and surveys detailing the different approaches taken by hospitals, infirmaries, and barracks throughout the British empire. Over the next few months, Florence worked with a single-minded dedication.

Florence nightingale by cecil woodham smith