Chapter I. The presence of thousands of daughters of Florence Nightingale in the regions devastated by the great world war, and the great service to humanity which they have rendered, have turned the thoughts of many to that other battlefield where the great need of the world for trained nurses was first impressed on the hearts of the people--an impression never to be effaced while there are suffering human beings requiring skilled care and service. Sixty odd years ago, at the outbreak of the Crimean war there were no women nurses to minister to those who had been wounded in the service of their country. Woman’s ministry was sorely needed but not wanted by those in active command of military affairs at the seat of war. It remained for Florence Nightingale to teach the world one of its greatest lessons--a lesson from which future generations will reap increasing benefits. When the Crimean war closed, the foundation was begun on which the structure of modern nursing was to be reared. In every age, the world has had its heroes, and Florence Nightingale would have been the last to wish to give the impression that there were not many splendid women devoting themselves to the care of the sick long before she was born. They were not trained women according to modern ideals of training, but there were women of gentle birth and breeding, refined and accomplished who served the sick with singleness of heart and rare devotion. The world will always owe its debt of gratitude to the Roman Catholic Sisters and the Deaconesses of other churches, whose tender ministries to the sick in hospitals and home, did much to lessen the sum of human suffering in the years before Miss Nightingale’s great work was begun.