Eminent women of the age : being narratives of the lives and deeds of the most prominent women of the present generation.

  • James Parton
Date:
1868
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Eminent women of the age : being narratives of the lives and deeds of the most prominent women of the present generation. 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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    there a flannel petticoat, and at another place a poor man's plaster, she seriously studied the art of nursing, visited hos- pitals in the neighborhood, and read with the utmost eager- ness whatever she could find in her father's library relating to the treatment of disease, and the management of asylums. This was no romantic fancy of her youth. Miss Nightin- gale is a truly intelligent and gifted woman, — as far as pos- sible removed from the cast of character which is at once described and stigmatized l)y the word romantic. She ear- nestly desired to know the best manner of mitigating the suf- ferings of the sick, the wounded, and the infirm; and she studied this beautiful science as a man studies that which he truly and ardently wishes to understand. As it is the custom of wealthy families in England to spend part of every year in London, Miss Nightingale was enabled to extend the sphere of her observation to the numberless hospitals and asylums of that metropolis. These institutions are on the grandest scale, and were liberally endowed by the generosity of former ages; but at that time many of them abounded in a])uses and defects of every description. Ever}'where she saw the need of better nurses, women trained and educated to their work. Excellent surgeons were to be found in most of them ; but in many instances the admirable skill of the sm-geon was l)alked and frustrated by the blun- dering ignorance or the obstinate conceit of the nurse. Those who observed this elegant young lady moving softly about the wards of the hospitals, little imagined, perhaps, that from her was to come the reform of those institutions. Miss Nightingale may almost be said to have created the art of which she is the most illustrious teacher; but she was yet far from having perfected herself; many years were still to elapse before she was prepared to speak with the authority of a master. Mrs. Gamp still flourished for a while, although her days were numbered.
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