Today in Science History - Quickie Quiz

Florence Nightingale

(12 May 1820 - 13 Aug 1910)

English nurse and statistician , known as “The Lady With The Lamp,” who pioneered the improvement of nursing practices following her experience in the Crimean War, and continued to raise respect for nurses as medical professionals.

Short biography of Florence Nightingale >>

Florence Nightingale

A Ward in the Hospital at Scutari

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Detail from 1856 lithograph of one of the wards of the hospital at Scutari during the Crimean War after the arrival of Florence Nightingale. Artist William Simpson (1823-1899). (source)

Lithograph titled One of the Wards of the Hospital at Scutari by artist William Simpson (1823-1899) drawn representing the interior after the arrival of Florence Nightingale. Published in 1856 as Plate 34 in Colnaghi's Authentic Series by Paul & Dominic Colnaghi & Co., Déposé Paris, Goupil & Cie; Leipzig, Otto Weigel.

The artist, William Simpson, was a war artist who rendered first-hand depictions of the Crimean War providing the public with impressions of the realitiy of the campaign, in his era presaging the work of later war correspondents and cameramen. Simpson was known for his choice of accuracy over drama. His most famous work is The Charge of the Light Brigade.

Image from the lithograph in the Wellcome Collection, with restoration by Adam Cuerden. Information in text from Library of Congress collection. (source)

Florence Nightingale quote: I attribute my success to this:— I never gave or took an excuse.

Florence Nightingale quote: Let people who have to observe sickness and death look back and try to register in their observation

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Florence Nightingale quote Study statistics

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See also:

Science Quotes by Florence Nightingale.
12 May - short biography, births, deaths and events on date of Nightingale's birth.
Large color picture of Florence Nightingale (1000 x 1334 px)
Florence Nightingale - testimony she gave to Parliament on poor clothing, food supplies and the state of the hosital at Scutari (20 Feb 1855).
Florence Nightingale, Notes On Nursing - Nursing Quotes - Ventilation Quotes
Florence Nightingale - context of quote Study statistics - Medium image (500 x 350 px)
Florence Nightingale - context of quote Study statistics - Large image (800 x 600 px)
Florence Nightingale At Eighty-Five Says War Helps To Make Men Noble - from The Scrap Book (1908)
A Remarkable Woman - Order of Merit for Florence Nightingale, from The Scrap Book (1908)
Florence Nightingale, Lady of the Lamp - transcript of a 1940s radio talk by Charles F. Kettering.
Florence Nightingale: The Making of an Icon, by Mark Bostridge. - book suggestion.
Booklist for Florence Nightingale.

Nature bears long with those who wrong her. She is patient under abuse. But when abuse has gone too far, when the time of reckoning finally comes, she is equally slow to be appeased and to turn away her wrath. (1882) -- Nathaniel Egleston, who was writing then about deforestation, but speaks equally well about the danger of climate change today.

Carl Sagan: In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion. (1987) ...(more by Sagan)

Albert Einstein: I used to wonder how it comes about that the electron is negative. Negative-positive—these are perfectly symmetric in physics. There is no reason whatever to prefer one to the other. Then why is the electron negative? I thought about this for a long time and at last all I could think was “It won the fight!” ...(more by Einstein)

Richard Feynman: It is the facts that matter, not the proofs. Physics can progress without the proofs, but we can't go on without the facts ... if the facts are right, then the proofs are a matter of playing around with the algebra correctly. ...(more by Feynman)