NIGHTINGALE 



NIIGATA 



501 



distinct species, of rather larger size, less russet in 

 line, and slightly spotted on the breast. 



Nightingale, FLORENCE, the daughter of 

 William Edward Nightingale of Embley Park, 

 Hampshire, and Lea Hurst, Derbyshire, was 

 born at Florence in May 1829. She was taught 

 mathematics, the classics, and modern languages 

 under the guidance of her father, and thus 

 highly educated and brilliantly accomplished she 

 early exhibited an intense devotion to the allevia- 

 tion of suffering, which in 1844 led her to give 

 attention to the condition of hospitals. She visited 

 and inspected civil and military hospitals all over 

 Europe ; and in 1851 went into training as a nurse 

 in the institution of Protestant Deaconesses at 

 Kaiserswerth on the Rhine, and studied with the 

 Sisters of St Vincent de Paul in Paris the system 

 of nursing and management carried out in the 

 hospitals of that city. On her return to England 

 she put into thorough working order the Sanatorium 

 for Governesses in Harley Street. Ten years was 

 the term of apprenticeship thus served in prepara- 

 tion for the work of her life. In the spring of 1854 

 war was declared with Russia; Alma was fought 

 on the 20th of September, and the wounded from 

 the buttle were sent down to the hospitals on the 

 Bosporus, which were soon crowded with sick 

 and wounded, their unhealthy condition Incoming 

 apparent in a rate of mortality to which the casu- 

 alties of the fiercest battle were as nothing. In 

 this crisis Miss Nightingale wrote on loth October 

 and ottered to go out ana organise a nursing depart- 

 ment at Scutari. Lord Herbert, who had already 

 written a letter 'requesting' her to go, whicli 

 crossed that containing Miss Nightingale's otter, 

 gladly accepted, ami on the 21st of Octol>er she 

 departed with thirty-four nurses. She arrived at 

 Constantinople on the 4th of November, the eve of 

 Inkermann the beginning of the terrible winter 

 campaign in time to receive the wounded from 

 that second battle into wards already tilled with 

 2300 patients. Her devotion to the sufferers can 

 never lie forgotten. She would stand twenty hours 

 at a stretch, in order to see them provided with 

 accommodation and all the requisites of their con- 

 dition, and a few months after her arrival she had 

 10,000 sick men under her care. But she saw 

 clearly in the bad sanitary arrangements of the 

 hospitals the causes of their frightful mortality, 

 ami her incessant labour was devoted to the re- 

 moval of these causes, as well as to the mitigation 

 of their effects. In the spring of 18.">5, while in 

 the Crimea organising the nursing departments of 

 the camp -hi.-pitals, she was prostrated with fever, 

 the result of iinintermitting toil and anxiety ; yet 

 she refused to leave her post, and on her recovery 

 remained at Scutari till Turkey was evacuated by 

 the British, July 28, 1856. She, to whom many 

 a soldier owed life and health, hail expended her 

 own health in the physical and mental strain to 

 which she had subjected herself. In 1857 she 

 furnished the ' commissioners appointed to inquire 

 into the regulations affecting the sanitary condi- 

 tion of the British army ' with a paper of written 

 evidence, in which she impresses forcibly and clearly 

 the great lesson of the Crimean war, whicli she 

 characterises as a sanitary experiment on a colossal 

 scale. At the close of the Crimean war a fund of 

 50,000 was suWribed for the purpose of enabling 

 her to form an institution for the training of 

 nnrses ; this is spent in training a superior order 

 of nurses in connection with St Thomas's (the 

 Nightingale Home) and at King's College Hos- 

 pital. From the (jueen she received an autograph 

 letter of thanks, and a. cross set with diamonds, as 

 also a bracelet set with brilliants from the Sultan 

 of Turkey. Her experience in the Crimea turned 

 the attention of Miss Nightingale to the general 



question of army sanitary reform, and first; to that 

 of army hospitals. In 1858 she published her 

 valuable Notes on Nursing, and she contributed 

 two papers to the National Association for 

 the Promotion of Social Science, on Hospital 

 Construction and Arrangement. The Notes on 

 Hosjntals (1859), from their clearness of arrange- 

 ment and minuteness of detail, are most valuable 

 to the architect, the engineer, and the medical 

 officer. In the year 1863 was issued the Report of 

 the Commission on the Sanitary Condition of the 

 Army in India. These reports were sent in manu- 

 script to Miss Nightingale, and at page 347 of vol. i. 

 are inserted her incisive and admirable observa- 

 tions upon this immense mass of evidence. In 

 1871 Miss Nightingale published Notes on Lying- 

 in-Institutions ; in 1873, Life or Death in India 

 and (in Fraaer's Magazine) 'A "Note" of Inter- 

 rogation,' which attracted a good deal of attention, 

 mainly on account of the way she handles religious 

 beliefs and life. From America and from different 

 European governments her advice has been sought 

 as to army sanitation ; she assisted in founding the 

 Red Cross Society. Longfellow's Suntn Filumena 

 is in her praise. The article HOSPITALS in this 

 Encyclopaedia is from her pen. 



Night-jar. See GOATSUCKER. 



Nightmare (AS. iienht, 'night, 'and mara, 

 'night-mare;' originally 'the crusher'). See 

 bBKAJCDIO, 



Nightshade, the English name of certain 

 plants of the natural order Solanaceie (q.v. ), pos- 

 sessing the narcotic properties frequently developed 

 in that order. Among them are some species of 

 Solarium (q.v.), particularly the Common Night-, 

 shade, or Black Nightshade (S. nigrum), an 

 annual or biennial, 

 with erect angular 

 stem, ovate, sinu- 

 ate-dentate leaves, 

 drooping lateral um- 

 bels of white (lowers, 

 and globose black 

 berries ; a frequent 

 weed in waste places 

 in England and in 

 most parts of the 

 world. Few plants 

 are more widely dif- 

 fused. It is only 

 slightly narcotic. 

 The leaves in a 

 fresh state are said 

 to be injurious to 

 animals which eat 

 them, but seem to 

 lose almost all nar- 

 cotic property by 

 boiling, and are 

 used as spinach, 

 particularly in 

 warm climates. The 

 berries, although 

 generally dreaded or suspected, may also, it is said, 

 be eaten, at least in moderate quantity, without 

 danger. They contain, however, the alkaloid 

 Solanine, found also in the shoots of the potato. 

 For the Woody Nightshade, see BITTKRSWEET ; for 

 the Deadly Nightshade, see BELLADONNA; and for 

 Enchanter's Nightshade, see ClHC^EA. 



MKritin. See SOUDAN. 



Niigata, a seaport of western Japan, situated 

 on a narrow strip of land at the mouth of the 

 Shinano River, was opened to foreign trade in 18!i9. 

 The harbour does not admit of the entrance of 

 vessels of foreign build, and the roadstead is 

 exposed ; the foreign trade has therefore remained 



Common or Black Nightshade 

 (Solatium niyrum). 



