At the time Miss Nightingale returned from the Crimea, the death rate in hospitals was lamentably high, and it was but natural that she should turn her attention to remedying such conditions, or at least to call attention to them. In 1858 her book, “Notes on Hospitals,” was issued. A noted man in acknowledging receipt of a copy stated that it appeared to him to be the most valuable contribution to sanitary science in application to medical institutions, that he had ever seen. In this book we find her calling attention to overcrowding, lack of drainage under hospitals, to ventilation, to the necessity of having non-absorbent floors and walls, to the desirability of iron beds, hair mattresses, and glass or earthen ware cups, instead of tin--also to needed improvements in hospital kitchens and laundries, to the curative effects of light--all of which ideas are today regarded as essentials in hospitals, but which were then years in advance of general practice. It is easy to point out defects--not always so easy to produce practical plans for correcting them, but Miss Nightingale not only called attention to the defects but at the same time showed how to remedy them. In the second edition of the book she enumerated “Sixteen Sanitary Defects in the Construction of Hospital Wards”--accompanying each statement with definite plans for correcting the defect. The publication of this little book on hospitals brought to her numerous requests for consultation regarding the construction of new hospitals which were being planned and more than a dozen hospitals constructed, soon after that time, had the benefit of her advice and detailed consideration of the architect’s plans. The questions as to the desirability of pavilion construction and whether a hospital should be built in the midst of a well-populated section, and among the class of people it is expected to serve--or in a more distant location, where better light and air are to be had--which are still debated among hospital people, were then as hotly debated as now. It was not unusual to find her making out the main specifications for an entire hospital building regarding which her advice had been sought, and architects and sanitary engineers were very glad to be able to quote her approval of their plans. Sir Edward Cook, her biographer, states that “in its day, Miss Nightingale’s Notes on Hospitals revolutionized many ideas, and gave a new direction to hospital construction.” “NOTES ON NURSING.” Between the return of Miss Nightingale from the Crimea, and the starting of the first real training school for nurses some three or four years elapsed, which were largely devoted to the securing of better sanitary conditions for the army--and in tedious and exhaustive work with military officials and legislators, in addition to her work in improving hospital buildings and methods.