The euphonious name of the lady nurse who had thus suddenly risen into fame was quickly caught by the populace, and the nurses selected to accompany her were dubbed the “nightingales,” and there was much pleasantry about their singing. Mr. _Punch_ slyly surmised that some of the “dear nightingales” going to nurse the sick soldiers would “in due time become ringdoves.” A cartoon showed a hospital ward with the male inmates beaming with content as the lady-birds hovered about them. Another illustration depicted a bird, with the head of a nurse, flying through the air carrying by one claw a jug labelled “Fomentation, Embrocation, Gruel.” It was entitled “The Jug of the Nightingale.” _Punch’s_ poet contributed “The Nightingale’s Song to the Sick Soldier,” which became a popular refrain, and is worthy of quotation:-- Listen, soldier, to the tale of the tender nightingale, ’Tis a charm that soon will ease your wounds so cruel, Singing medicine for your pain, in a sympathetic strain, With a jug, jug, jug of lemonade or gruel. Singing bandages and lint; salve and cerate without stint, Singing plenty both of liniment and lotion, And your mixtures pushed about, and the pills for you served out, With alacrity and promptitude of motion. Singing light and gentle hands, and a nurse who understands How to manage every sort of application, From a poultice to a leech; whom you haven’t got to teach The way to make a poppy fomentation. Singing pillow for you, smoothed; smart and ache and anguish smoothed, By the readiness of feminine invention; Singing fever’s thirst allayed, and the bed you’ve tumbled made, With a cheerful and considerate attention. Singing succour to the brave, and a rescue from the grave, Hear the nightingale that’s come to the Crimea, ’Tis a nightingale as strong in her heart as in her song, To carry out so gallant an idea. While there was a large majority to wish God-speed to the enterprise, there were also many people who considered it an improper thing for women to nurse in a military hospital, while others thought it nonsense for young ladies to attempt “to nurse soldiers when they did not even yet know what it was to nurse a baby.” Others predicted that no woman could stand the strain of work in an Eastern hospital, that the scheme would prove futile, and all the nurses be invalided home after a month’s experience. The undertaking was so new, and so much at variance with English custom and tradition, that criticism was to be expected. But Florence Nightingale was one of those lofty souls who listen to the voice within, and take little heed of the voices without. It was for her to break down the “Chinese wall” of prejudices, religious, social, and professional, and establish a precedent for all time.