Page:Notes on Nursing What It Is, and What It Is Not.djvu/15

Rh as ingenious, disagreeable machines, needing, like the steam-engine, sustenance and covering, but, like it, quite beyond or beneath all sympathy, passions, or affections. Miss Nightingale thought otherwise, and found pleasure in tending those poor, destitute governesses, in their infirmities, their deaths, or their recoveries. She was seldom seen outside the walls of the institution, and the few friends whom she admitted found her in the midst of nurses, letters, prescriptions, accounts, and interruptions. Her health sank under the heavy pressure, but a little Hampshire fresh air restored her, and the failing institution was saved.

About this time, 1854, Florence Nightingale also took an active interest in the Ragged Training Schools, and several similar institutions. She felt, with Hannah More, that "the care of the poor is the profession of women," and all her talents were unceasingly employed in the amelioration of their miseries.

But while Miss Nightingale was recruiting her health and spirits in her beautiful home at Embley, a cry of dire distress and bitterest agony came from the East, piercing England nearly to the heart. It arose from our wounded brethren, huddled together, languishing in their rough beds, destitute of comforts or even necessary accommodations, crushed by the cold, unfeeling, iron heel of Routine, and by the heavy, murderous hand of Mismanagement. An enthusiastic desire to respond to it instantly sprang up in the breasts of all who heard it; and suggestions were offered from all quarters by warm and willing hearts. Undisciplined zeal, however, could do little towards supplying the wants of those dying heroes who were uttering the mournful cry for help; and it was feared lest the ardent feelings which had been roused might flag or be misdirected for lack of some systematic arrangement. Wealth was poured forth to aid, and food, clothing, medicines, and other necessaries were shipped in abundance; but something more was needed. A proposition, originated by Lady Maria Forester, to form a band of female nurses, to be despatched to the seat of war, was started, and found favor with the government and the majority of the public.

The idea being propounded, the chief difficulty was to carry it out; and there was a fear "lest a noble impulse should fail for the want of a head, a hand, and a heart to direct it." But, having engaged three nurses. Lady Maria Forester waited on Miss Nightingale, and entreated her to take the direction and entire control of the nursing establishment for our sick and wounded soldiers and sailors on the distant shores of the Levant. Lady Maria's request, earnestly seconded by that of the Right Hon. Sidney Herbert, then secretary-at-war, induced Miss Nightingale to yield a generous consent to undertake the management of the expedition. It is, indeed, affirmed by some, that, by a strange coincidence, the noble woman had herself written to Mr. Herbert on the very same day, volunteering her services where they were so direfully needed.

Immediately on her intention becoming known, horror thrilled the souls of those humane and wise Gradgrinds who, comprehending no "facts" but those which had undoubted precedents, had laughed aloud when Elizabeth Fry proposed to cleanse Newgate, and had coldly sneered when Hannah More hinted at Sunday schools. But, upheld by her noble and compassionate heart, and resolved to follow humbly and reverentially in the footsteps of who had suffered from evil tongues, Florence Nightingale calmly held on her way up the steep and rocky road, nor heeded the discordant cries which would have called her back. Rh