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Key to Editing A ll the manuscript material in the Collected Works has been carefully transcribed and verified (see Life and Family Appendix E: Research Methods and Sources for a description of the process of obtaining and processing this information). Illegible words and passages are so indicated, with [illeg] or [?] inserted to indicate our best reading of the word or words in question. Dates for material cited or reproduced are given wherever possible, in square brackets if they are estimates only (by an archivist, previous scholar or the editor ). Any controversy about date is indicated. The type of material, whether a note, actual letter, draft or copy is given as precisely as possible . Designations of letter/draft/copy signify that the source was Nightingale’s own files, given to the British Library or to St Thomas’ Hospital and then the Florence Nightingale Museum, and are probably drafts or copies kept by her. The designation of ‘‘letter’’ is used only when there is good reason to believe that it was actually sent and received (a postmarked envelope, for example, or the archive being other than Nightingale’s own files). In some cases both the original letter and Nightingale’s draft or copy are extant, and these show that the copies she kept are reliable. We do not use the convention of als (autograph letter signed), but our ‘‘letter’’ is close to it, bearing in mind that Nightingale often used initials rather than her signature. The electronic I-text (that is, the transcriptions as ‘‘input,’’ before editing ) gives full information on supporting material (envelopes, postmarks ), and whether the piece was in pen, pencil, dictated or typed. The practice was naturally to use the best source possible, the original letter where available. Where a draft or copy was also available this is noted. Sometimes the original was no longer available and a typed copy in an archive or a published copy had to be used. All sources indicated as ‘‘Add Mss’’ (Additional Manuscripts) are British Library, the largest source of Nightingale material. The Wellcome Trust History of Medicine Library is abbreviated ‘‘Wellcome.’’ / 45 Most of those materials are copies of correspondence at Claydon House, indicated as (Claydon copy). If not so indicated they are originals. Where only short excerpts from a letter are used (because the rest is on another subject) these are indicated as ‘‘from a letter’’ and the address and ellipses at the beginning and end are omitted. Postscripts that merely repeat points or move on to a completely different subject are omitted without ellipses. To avoid use of ‘‘ibid.’’ and ‘‘op. cit.,’’ and to reduce the number of footnotes generally, citations are given at the end of a sequence if the same source is cited more than once. Subsequent citations are noted in the text with the new page or folio number given in parentheses. The term ‘‘folio’’ (abbreviated as f or ff in the plural) is used for reference to manuscript pages, p and pp for printed pages, where needed, or page numbers are given after the date or volume number without p or pp. References to material that appears in earlier volumes of the Collected Works are normally identified by our title, volume number and page number rather than the archival source. To make the text as accessible as possible spelling, punctuation and capitalization have been modernized and standardized, and most abbreviations replaced with full words. British spellings have been maintained and standardized (labour, honour). We have kept her old-fashioned ‘‘farther,’’ ‘‘by and bye’’ and ‘‘unpractical’’ for ‘‘impractical,’’ but change ‘‘shew’’ to show,’’ ‘‘staid’’ to ‘‘stayed,’’ ‘‘organise’’ to ‘‘organize,’’ ‘‘expence’’ to ‘‘expense’’ and ‘‘burthen’’ to ‘‘burden.’’ The food ‘‘tost’’ becomes ‘‘toast’’ and laundry ‘‘shoots’’ ‘‘chutes.’’ We change ‘‘story’’ to ‘‘storey’’ when it refers to a floor. We use modern spellings of words with ‘‘ae,’’ hence gynecology, pyemia, septicemia, diarrhea and hemorrhage , and aseptik becomes aseptic. At St Thomas’ ward names were used for the sister in charge, hence Sister Charity, Sister Accident and Sister Victoria (the children’s ward). There was also a ‘‘Sister Extra.’’ Those names were not used for the Magdalen Ward (for syphilitic prostitutes, called ‘‘magdalens’’), or the ophthalmia or obstetric wards. The medical and surgical wards had either a woman’s or man’s first name (often royal): Elizabeth, Alexandra, Alice, Beatrice, Adelaide; and Albert, Arthur, Leopold, Edward, George, Clayton, Christian. The ‘‘cards’’ were charts. Terms for the nursing hierarchy were different in Nightingale’s day (see p 8 above). Her terms for...

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