The Life of Florence Nightingale, vol. 2 of 2Cook, Edward Tyas, Sir
History
The Life of Florence Nightingale, vol. 2 of 2
Cook, Edward Tyas, Sir
Nightingale, Florence, 1820-1910
make themselves acquainted with improvements in sewerage, drainage,
water-supply of towns, and in application of sewage to agriculture,
and with improvements in Barrack and Hospital construction, etc.,
as carried out here. Now, there is no one but you who can properly
advise Sir S. N. in this way. Pray do so.
Sir Stafford Northcote did all, and more than all, that at this
interview he had promised. She was impressed by his sincerity at the
time. "I believe," she told Dr. Sutherland, "he will carry out exactly
what he consents to do." But other friends advised her to leave nothing
to good intentions, to strike while the iron was hot, and to continue
jogging the minister's elbow until the things were actually done.
Presently an occasion offered itself. The Governor-General had written
her a long private letter about the ravages of cholera among the troops
in the N.W. Provinces. She sent the substance of this letter to Sir
Stafford Northcote, and invited him to concur in her opinion that such
things ought not to be. But could they ever be prevented until the
Public Health Service was placed on a proper footing? The minister, in
acknowledging her letter (Oct. 18), said that, the pressure of other
business being relaxed, he was now able to give full attention to
sanitary questions, and that he would like to have another conversation.
The interview was on October 23. On this occasion the minister came
full-handed. He told her, first, as appears from her notes and letters,
that he had definitely decided to appoint a Sanitary Committee at the
India Office. He read out the list of names; with Sir Bartle Frere,
according to promise, as chairman, and Sir H. Anderson as secretary. He
then asked her advice with regard to the relations between this
Committee and the War Office Sanitary Committee, for there was, as he
explained (and as she knew only too well), great jealousy between the
two offices. She advised that the India Office Committee should be the
controlling and responsible body, and the War Office Committee
consultative only; "but I shall be much surprised," she wrote in
explaining things to Captain Galton, "if Sir Bartle Frere does not refer
many more matters to you than has previously been the case." She had
thus won the second of her Three Points.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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