RE: off topic one last time

[Bill Troop bill@xxxxxxxx]

> As for Florence Nightingale, she would have been a total disaster
> had he tried to treat a yellow-fever epidemic with her otherwise
> sensible prescription of lots and lots of fresh air.

Precisely that situation arose in India. It was only with
difficulty that the Viceroy persuaded Miss Nightingale
that fresh air was not always good air. This story is
entertainingly told in Strachey's Eminent Victorians.
There has been much intelligent recent discussion of
FN in the NY Review of Books, including new details
of the guilt FN probably bore for _not_ getting the horse
out of the water. The sad fact is that when she arrived
at Scutari, she knew nothing whatever about sanitary
conditions. It was only six months later
that a special commission came in and sanitized
everything. The new theory is that FN never forgave
herself for the six months of deaths she caused by
not being aware of this. (I say recent; perhaps it was
almost a year ago? Anyway, two articles by Helen
Somebody.) Now FN had an immune system I think
anyone would envy -- there's also interesting
new speculation, coming close to certainty, as to
the illness that kept her in bed for so many decades.
No, FN did not believe in germs; but let's not hold
that against her -- after all, she did create a marvellous
profession singlehandedly. Perhaps it would have
happened without her, but it would have taken at the
very least many more decades.