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Home » Health, Welfare and Charity » Hospitals and medical care » Nightingale, Florence (1820-1910)

Displaying results 1 to 6 out of 6

Page 1

Letter from Florence Nightingale expressing her support for Swansea Hospital improvements, 18 November 1865, page 1 of 3
  • In this letter, dated 22 September 1882, F.N. discusses the results of her recent enquiry to the Army Sanitary Commission in London regarding the Bangor epidemic. She says that Dr Sutherland recommends a book by Dr Mutchinson on continued fevers. F.N. has sent this book to William Rathbone but she feels it to be too medical. She has also sent Dr Marston's paper which is 'the latest and by far the best information', but is also very medical. She asks Mr Rathbone to obtain the Inspector's report and accounts of the 'measures adopted after the inspection' so that she and the Army Sanitary Commission can advise without appearing to the Local Board of Health to be interfering. She alludes to the 'water poison theory' and points out that in India 'not a single enteric fever case has been traced to enteric fever poison either in or out of water'. She recommends investigation of 'all the house closets and pipes and also the street drains and whether the subsoil is dry and clean'. She requests that this information is sent to her 'quietly, between you and me' so that she can get an opinion from the London authorities. She remarks: 'this Bangor Typhoid is so disastrous a thing that we are thankful you have gone to the spot'.
Letter from Florence Nightingale to William Rathbone MP, 22 September 1882 [image 1 of 6]
  • In this letter, dated 2 October 1882, F.N. thanks William Rathbone for the papers which he sent to her concerning the Bangor epidemic. She comments on the situation and notes that the mortality rate is one death to seventeen and a half cases, whereas, with enteric fever it is about one in six. She concludes that it is not an enteric fever epidemic but a fever epidemic, part of which has passed into enteric fever. She blames the outbreak on 'local causes' such as are often found in 'badly cared for towns' and notes specifically the 'neglect of the most ordinary precautions' which led, 'possibly from some climatic season' to the outbreak of the fever. She goes on to criticise the 'state of administration' in the city and blames the replacement of the old Board of Health by decentralized jurisdictions. She goes on to describe her usual remedy to deal with such fever, of removing the people and thoroughly cleaning the house.
Letter from Florence Nightingale to William Rathbone MP, 2 October 1882 [image 1 of 8]
  • In this letter to William Rathbone, dated 13 October 1882, F.N. explains that she has at last received the letters of the Local Government Board, dated July. In her opinion, 'the case now is more of an engineering one than simply a sanitary one'. She recommends the services of a Mr Rawlinson, 'the man Bangor seems to want', who 'would trace the evil in its relation to engineering and household cases'. The letter ends: 'Bangor is such an important case, so terribly typical for itself and for others, that we wish you doubly success.'
Letter from Florence Nightingale to William Rathbone MP, 13 October 1882 [image 1 of 4]
  • In this letter, dated 7 May 1883, F.N. remarks upon the conclusions drawn on the Bangor epidemic. According to her advisers, the problem was not an 'enteric fever poison' but the lack of sanitary measures to prevent an outbreak. In particular, there were good sewage and water systems, but they needed 'a proper system of improvement'. She recommends that the whole water scheme should be completed and that the work should be overseen by an engineer and not the officer of health. She remarks that 'the mischief was all done at Bangor before the fever showed itself', and that 'the object of sanitary work is not remedy but prevention', which was lacking due to 'some missing links in the administration'.
Letter from Florence Nightingale to William Rathbone MP, 7 May 1883 [image 1 of 5]
  • A collection of five letters from Florence Nightingale to William Rathbone, MP for Caernarfonshire, concerning the typhoid epidemic at Bangor in 1882.
Letters from Florence Nightingale to William Rathbone MP, 1882-3