An angel of mercy : Florence Nightingale.

Date:
1863
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An angel of mercy : Florence Nightingale. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material is part of the Elmer Belt Florence Nightingale collection. The original may be consulted at University of California Libraries.

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    required that articles—needed for present use—should be ob- tained from home through the commissariat, and a regulation which appointed that a board must sit upon stores already- landed, before they could be given out, will serve as instances to show what were the obstacles against which Miss Nightin- gale had to exert her energies of discretion and presence of mind. To comprehend the evils occasioned by such impedi- ments, an exti'act from one of the nurse's letters will offer an example: I know not what sight is moie heart-rending, to witness fine-looking, strong young men worn down by ex- haustion, and sinking under it, or others coming in fearfully wounded. The whole of yesterday was spent in sewing men's mattresses together, then in washing and assisting the surgeons to dress their wounds, and seeing the poor fellows made as comfortable as their circumstances would admit of after five days' confinement on board ship, during which time their wounds were not dressed. Out of the four wards com- mitted to my charge, eleven men died in the night simply from exhaustion, which, humanly speaking, might have been stopped, could I have laid my hands on such nourishment as I know they ought to have had. In the article of hospital clothing, the same deidorable effects resulted from the delay and confusion which existed before Miss Nightingale's remedial measures came into opera- tion. The original supply of these articles, inadequate as it was, had long been reduced so low, that but for the pur- chases made with the money of the fund, and distributed through Miss Nightingale, a large proportion of the invalids must have been without a change of under-clothing, con- demned to wear the tattered, filthy rags in which they were brought down from the Crimea. A washing contract existed, indeed, but it was entirely inoperative; and the consequence was, that not only the beds, but the shirts of the men were in a state foul and unwholesome beyond desci'iption. To remedy this, a house well supplied with water was engaged at the charge of the fund, close to the Barrack Hospital, 16