Nightingale

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

FLORENCE, an English philanthropist; born in Florence, Italy, May 15, 1820. At an early age she manifested a keen interest in suffering humanity, and from philanthropic motives she visited the chief military hospitals in Europe, and studied the chief nursing systems. ms. From then on she devoted her life to the uplift of the pro fession of nursing and to the improvement and advancement of nursing and sanitation, both in hospitals and in the home. During the Crimean War (1854) the hospital accommodation was found to be very defective, and Miss Nightingale promptly volunteered to organize a select band of nurses at Scutari. The offer was accepted by the British War Office, and within a week Miss Nightingale was on invaluable service to the sick and wounded by her incessant labors in nursing and hospital reform. The strain, both mental and physical, which this work demanded permanently injured her health; yet notwithstanding her confinement to a sick-room, she continued to give her experience in the interest of hospital reform, and for this purpose she was consulted during the American Civil War and the Franco-Prussian War. She published "Notes on Hospitals" (1859), "Notes on Nursing" (1860), "On the Sanitary State of the Army in India" (1863), "Notes on Lying-in Institutions" (1871); "Life or Death in India" (1873): etc. She received many acknowledgments of her services to humanity from many governments. One of the figures of the Crimean Memorial in Waterloo Place, London, is that of Miss Nightingale. She died in London, Aug. 13, 1910.