Page:Notes on Nursing What It Is, and What It Is Not.djvu/20

Rh interest in her wounded or disabled soldiers, visiting and cheering them on many occasions.

By February, the great increase of fever was the chief point of remark; it raged destructively, and in less than a month it swept away no fewer than seven surgeons, leaving eight more, and three of the nurses, dangerously ill. Indeed, at that time there was but one medical attendant well enough to wait on the sick in the Barrack Hospital; and his services were required in no less than twenty-one wards. Drs. Newton and Struthers were tended in their last moments, and had their dying eyes closed, by Miss Nightingale. For "wherever there is disease in its most dangerous form," wrote Mr. Macdonald, in February, "and the hand of the despoiler distressingly nigh, there is that incomparable woman sure to be seen; her benignant presence is an influence for good comfort, even amid the struggles of expiring nature. She is 'a ministering angel,' without any exaggeration, in these hospitals; and, as her slender form glides quietly along each corridor, every poor fellow's face softens with gratitude at the sight of her. When all the medical officers have retired for the night, and silence and darkness have settled down upon those miles of prostrate sick, she may be observed alone, with a little lamp in her hand, making her solitary rounds. The popular instinct was not mistaken which, when she set out from England on her mission of mercy, hailed her as a heroine; I trust that she may not earn her title to a higher, though sadder, appellation. No one who has observed her fragile figure and delicate health can avoid misgivings lest she should fail. With the heart of a true woman, and the manners of a lady, accomplished and refined beyond most of her sex, she combines a surprising calmness of judgment with promptitude and decision of character."

Of the sublime courage which must have supported her during these solitary nocturnal rounds we may judge by the slight sketch given in another place. Speaking of the frightful and sickening sounds and sights in the wards and corridors, he says: "During the day little of this is heard; but when all is silent, and sleep has settled down upon the occupants of each ward and corridor, then rise at intervals upon the ear sounds which go straight to the heart of the listener."

Merely to see her pass along was an inexpressible comfort to the men. "She would speak to one," said a poor fellow, writing home, "and nod and smile to a many more; but she couldn't do it to all, you know. "We lay there by hundreds; but we could kiss her shadow as it fell, and lay our heads on the pillow again, content." In her rounds, to one she would administer words of consolation and hope, to another teach resignation, now cheering with a smile or sympathizing with a sigh — ministering to the necessities both of mind and body of the sufferers, who, following her light, soft footsteps with their tear-brimmed eyes, bent to "kiss her shadow as it fell." Such was her influence, that when men, frenzied by their wounds and disease, had worked themselves into a passionate refusal to submit to necessary operations, a few calm sentences of hers seemed at once to allay the storm; and the men would submit willingly to the painful ordeal they had to undergo.

Of Florence Nightingale's personal appearance the author of "Scutari and its Hospitals" gives a most interesting description. "Miss Nightingale," he says, "is just what you would expect in any other well-bred woman, who may have seen, perhaps, rather more than thirty years of life; her manner and countenance are prepossessing, Rh