(_Miss Nightingale to Dr. H. W. Acland._) 35 SOUTH STREET, _March 17 [1876]_. The death of our dear friend, Dr. Parkes, fills me with grief: and also with anxiety for the future of the Army Medical School at Netley. He was a man of most rare modesty: of singular gifts. His influence at the School--there was not a man who did not leave the better for having been under him--is irreplaceable. But the knowledge and instruction he has diffused from the School as a centre has extended and will extend wherever the English language is spoken, and beyond. Dr. Parkes died like a true Christian hero "at his post," and with the simplicity of one. I think I have never known such disinterestedness, such self-abnegation, such forgetfulness of self. His death was like a resurrection. When he was dying, he dictated letters or gave messages to everybody: _all_ about what ought to be done _for the School_, for the spread of hygienic knowledge, for other useful and Army purposes: _none_ about himself.... On March 9, when it was evident he could not last many days, he commended _the School_ to Sir William Jenner and dictated a letter to me about hygienic interests, merely saying of himself that he might be "summoned to his last account" before I received it. On March 13 he rallied. I was allowed to send down a Trained Nurse. On March 15 he died.... Let us, as he went to the sacrifice of himself (he was only 56) with joy and praise--as the heroes of old--so part with him. But let us try to save what he would have saved.... The Professors at the Army Medical School had written to Miss Nightingale in alarm at a report in the newspapers that the institution was once more threatened. She begged Dr. Acland, who was a friend of the War Secretary (Mr. Gathorne Hardy), to do what he could; and meanwhile she took direct action herself. She drew up for Mr. Hardy, as she had done years before for Mr. Cardwell, the case for the defence of the School; she added personal entreaties of her own; and she sent Sir Harry Verney to present the documents to the minister in person. "Mr. Hardy listened attentively while I read your papers," reported Sir Harry. "I emphasised passages underlined by you, indeed showing him your marks and initials. He said that he had not decided the matter, and I replied, 'And Miss Nightingale wants to get hold of you before you do.' I shall congratulate you most earnestly, my dearest Florence, if your representations save the School, for I know that such success cheers you more than anything else." Three weeks later, the minister returned the papers to Sir Harry, announced that the School would not be touched, and said he might tell Miss Nightingale that he would make the appointments she had suggested.