Notes on Hospitals: Being Two Papers Read before the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science, at Liverpool, in October 1858

Returning from the Crimea, Florence Nightingale (1820–1910) used her experience of army medicine to ameliorate civilian nursing care. She was appalled by the conditions she found, affirming that the first requirement of a hospital was that 'it should do the sick no harm'. Problems such as overcrowding and damp, in addition to lack of ventilation and proper sanitation, contributed to high mortality rates. Nightingale's belief that such suffering was preventable was seen as revolutionary. In ...