NIGHTINGALE, Florence.

London: John W. Parker and Son, 1859

8vo, pp. (vii), 108, + 8 pages of advertisements at the end, folding letterpress table and 4 folding plates of hospital plans. With the half-title and the final advertisements. Original brown cloth (neatly rebacked, one upper corner a little worn), brown endpapers. Contemporary inscription “From the Author” (not in Nightingale’s hand) on half-title.

FIRST EDITION IN BOOK FORM. “Based on Nightingale’s extensive knowledge of English and Continental hospitals, the work was the most exhaustive study to date of hospital planning and administration. She blamed the majority of hospital deaths on overcrowding, lack of light and ventilation, and the collection of large numbers of the sick under one roof” (Norman). “The little book, revolutionary in character, set the seal on Miss Nightingale’s authority on the subject of hospitals, and gave a new direction to their construction” (Bishop & Goldie). It was made up of two papers read before the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science and three articles reprinted from The Builder. This copy has neat contemporary annotations and markings in the margins, evidently by an important physician with experience of the subject, which add to and sometimes correct the text, e.g. “In 1817 & 18 the Irish fever patients did better by the road-side than in hospital. Stromeyer takes the windows out of fever as I did out of cholera hospitals.” G&M 1611. Bishop & Goldie, Bio-bibliography, 100 (iii). Norman catalogue 1599.

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