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guardians. M.O. should have been to a small place before appointed to a larger. 2. Boarding Out 5/ a week. Workhouse schools 11/ in England. Girls under nuns. Intelligent inspection indispensable. Good domestic places for girls. The one object to prevent them coming back to workhouse. Boys under Christian Brothers, to be taught gardening, taken out geologizing. . . . 3. Sanitary buildings don’t seem bad. Well fitted up, much ophthalmia. Nuns said to be clean. Much of this contracted at birth, but communicated among children afterwards by uncleanliness, towels, etc. 4. Workhouses. Balfour’s Bill remedy. 5. Inspection by L.G.B.s, compulsory powers. Yes, but not always obeyed. Never criticize your pope, but put him on his ‘‘mettle,’’ as G. Balfour does his L.G.B.’s. Your L.G.B. is your pope. Don’t let the shouting ladies (Mrs E. Hart and Co.) put on his defiance. There cannot be a worse policy. Rather take Titania’s instructions about Bottom.549 ‘‘Public opinion’’: there is no public opinion in Ireland (see ‘‘Chap. on Snakes in Iceland: there are no Snakes in Iceland’’), but what public opinion there is is entirely in favour of nuns (S. of Ireland ). Miss Pringle is educating your nuns. 6. Cooking by paupers, great advantage for the pigs. 7. Dietary. M.O.s no power over it except for sick, afraid of losing their pension. To prevent tyranny, half the salary to be paid by L.G.B. (F.N.) Tea necessary for old people; here there is much given by ladies. Even all hospitals here did not provide tea. You have too much milk and we too little. Australian Hospitals Sydney, New South Wales Editor: The extension of nursing into Australian hospitals was made early in the life of the St Thomas’ School, at a time when suitable trained nurses were all too scarce. It was the first attempt also to implant a trained matron and nurses’ team at a great distance, and Nightingale and Henry Bonham Carter would rue their haste in selecting a matron (their choice was without experience), but a longer view makes clear that much was accomplished. The material in this next 549 In Shakespeare’s Midsummers’ Night Dream. 404 / Florence Nightingale: Extending Nursing section covers the poor sanitary conditions the nurses would face on arrival, delays in building promised quarters, as well as the usual issues of training and experience. An immediate issue was the attempted assassination of the visiting Prince Alfred, with related gossip and a potential scandal in the press. It seems that the first attempt to obtain trained nurses for Australia was made by Lady Harriott Dowling,550 wife of the chief justice of New South Wales, when she was in London in 1863. Three letters and a set of notes of hers to Nightingale are in the Nightingale Collection at the British Library, but Nightingale’s letters to her are not extant.551 A letter of June 1863 states that she, Lady Dowling, had received a reply from the colonial secretary regarding ‘‘qualified nurses’’ going to the ‘‘difficult hospitals’’ in New South Wales. We know that the wife of the governor of New South Wales, Lady Young, would write Nightingale on the subject, but no such letter is available. A set of points from Lady Dowling does remain regarding a ‘‘proposed scheme,’’ with an inquiry as to whether or not it met with Nightingale’s approval.552 A letter from Lady Dowling to Mrs Wardroper asked if she had informed St Thomas’ nurses about the ‘‘emigration to the Australian colonies.’’553 The paper trail then ends. The approach that resulted in successful action being taken was made by the governor of the colony, Henry Parkes,554 in July 1866, from which a long correspondence and friendship with Nightingale ensued. She promptly contacted Mrs Wardroper about the Sydney prospects,555 and explained to Harry Verney that the governor of New South Wales had just written to me for four trained head nurses to found a school for hospital nurses (for the colony) at Sydney in the infirmary. And we have been obliged to answer: Give us time. We have not one who is not engaged at the end of her training.556 550 Harriott Mary Dowling (d. 1881), second wife of Sir James Dowling. 551 Dowling letters to Nightingale 23 January, 11 February and 17 June 1863, Add Mss 47757 ff152-53, 154-55 and 156-57. 552 Letter 17 June 1863, Add...

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