LETTER: 1 ALS, from Scutari.
From Scutari, 1854
Nightingale, Florence. Autograph letter signed, “Yours truly, Florence Nightingale,” addressed “Dear Sir” to an unnamed correspondent, December 10, 1854, Scutari; with a postscript on the bottom of the third page by Charles Bracebridge.
2 ½ pp.; 8vo.; one leaf of plain writing paper, in ink; traces of mount on last page. In a specially made cloth slipcase.
Addressed from the Barrack Hospital, Scutari, scarely a month after Nightingale’s arrival there, it reads in full:
Would you take the trouble to find out &, if possible, procure an apparatus for the administration of Chloroform, such as is used in the Hospitals for operations – & send it me by the first opportunity, drawing upon our Consul for payment.
Also, half a dozen of what in the French Hospitals answer to our MacIntyre’s or Liston’s splints for compound fractures, would be, if procurable, most acceptable here, & may be addressed to me the sooner they can be had, the more acceptable.
I remain, dear Sir, with many thanks for your kindness,
With a postscript by Charles Bracebridge, who managed the finances of the Scutari expedition.
Though the first two lines of his note on Nightingale’s request are largely illegible, in the next lines he clearly authorizes that it be put through. Letters from Nightingale’s time at Scutari are rarely seen in commerce.
In 1854, Nightingale (1820-1910) was relatively new to nursing, yet her reputation had spread far enough to be asked by the British government to lead a group of nurses to care for soldiers wounded in the Crimean War. She arrived at the British bases hospital at Scutari, in Turkey, in early November, 1854, with a team of 38 nurses, most of whom were affiliated with a religious order. The dismal conditions at the Barrack Hospital and its wounded were compounded by the fact that it was built over a cesspool, which poisoned the water and corroded the building itself. Nightingale – through will, skill, intelligence and a considerable personal fortune – was able to effectively organize and sanitize the hospital, mere months after her arrival there. Soldiers called her method the “Nightingale effect,” or “Nightingale Power,” and forever mythologized her as the “Lady with the Lamp,” reporting that she wandered the halls at night checking on her charges.
However she did it, her achievement was considerable:
Miss Nightingale attacked every angle of hospital care in the filthy, disease-ridden barrack hospital at Scutari, which had no kitchen, plumbing or central heating. Food, clothing, water supplies, and general nursing care all came within her surveillance. Within in a few months she had effected sanitary reforms with rigid insistence on cleanliness and established a kitchen and laundry as well as recreation rooms and other measures to cheer and comfort her patients. The drop in hospital mortality was phenomenal, from 42% in February 1855 to 2% a few months later.” (Wangensteen and Wangensteen, p. 79)
When Nightingale returned to England in 1856, she was considered a hero – praise for her work echoed from the lowest soldier at Scutari all the way up to Prince Albert and Queen Victoria. However, she did not stop there; she insisted on reform for all military hospitals and medical care. Her efforts, unfortunately, did not come without a personal strife for her. After the Crimean War, she fell ill and never completely regained her health.
Nightingale’s road to professional success and recognition came after a long struggle. She was born to aristocratic English parents and, subsequently, into a society that valued pleasure, beauty and “feminine” women, not one who was independent and interested in pursuing a career – especially the profession of nursing, which was regarded as degrading and immoral. In spite of all this, Nightingale valued education and knew from an early age that she wanted to be a nurse. Nightingale’s parents, evidently, thought their daugh
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