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121 Florence Nightingale 121 not strictly in his routine work. He was an active reformer and earnest humanitarian. Though it was then unheard of for women who were not in religious orders to engage in army nursing, he determined to try the experiment, for distressing accounts came from the front of the neglected condition of the sick and wounded British soldiers. The Russians and French both had their Sisters of Charity; the English had no nurses. Sidney Her- bert turned to Miss Nightingale as the only woman in England in every way fitted to take charge of such a venturous and critical undertaking, and in October she went to the East with a staff of forty nurses, some of whom were Roman Catholic Sisters, others from Miss Sellon's Sisterhood and from St. John's House, while the majority were practical nurses from different hospitals, not gentlewomen, but in some cases good efficient workers. They landed at Scutari on November 4th, and were established in the large Barrack Hospital. They found the most horrible conditions — a vast hospi- tal with no sewage system, no laundry, no supplies, no fit food for sick men. The men were devoured by vermin and were in a most pitiable state of neglect. The death rate was from 50 to 60%. During the time she was in charge Miss Nightin- gale organized all the hospitals throughout the