Page:A short history of nursing - Lavinia L Dock (1920).djvu/142

126 A Short History of Nursing It seems to us now that she made a great mis- take in not pubHshing a full history of all that she saw and learned and did during the Crimean War. It would have been a stunning disclosure of army methods of that day and would have saved her health and strength. She threatened at one time to do this if fundamental reforms were not carried out by a certain date. After this she took up the subject of sanitation in India, and for many years was absorbed in the irrigation, taxation, and usury. This vast subject had her constant preoccupation until her ideas had begun to bear fruit in the actions of governor- generals, and during her whole life she wrote of and kept watch upon Indian affairs. Miss Nightin- gale's most remarkable writings are those dealing with India and the health of the British army, but as they were not printed for general circulation they are very little known. The British nation in gratitude to Miss Nightin- gale gave her a large sum of money which she used to found the training school for nurses of which she had always had the vision. She had hoped to direct it in person, but her health forbade Sanitation for India work of influencing administrations in India on health saving lines, which carried her as far as the land question.