NIGHTINGALE (FLORENCE)

HUGHES (AMY) Practical Hints on District Nursing (Burdett Series, No. 1), Scientific Press, [1898]

Footnotes

Florence Nightingale would not allow her significant contribution to the book to be acknowledged, and it is not noted by bibliographers, but she did allow Hughes to dedicate the book to her, a rare endorsement. Their correspondence is preserved in the Wellcome Institute and the British Library, and reveals that Nightingale made important corrections to the proof (advising for example that milk should not be boiled but rather heated to just below boiling point, in order to preserve its nutrients) and supplied information on aseptic as well as antiseptic surgery.

Amy Susan Hughes (1856-1923) was herself a pioneering organiser of district nursing, and is included in the Oxford DNB. She trained at the Nightingale school at St. Thomas's, and when Nightingale interviewed her on graduation she told Hughes to work in district nursing. "This was a great surprise to me" wrote Hughes, "as I am hoping eventually to become a sister in the hospital. But Miss Nightingale described the opportunities and openings for national welfare in such an inspiring way I felt I must accept her decision." A successful career in district nursing culminated in her being elected to Westminster city council in the municipal elections of 1919 and 1922, representing Victoria ward and serving on the council's housing, public health, and maternity and child welfare committees. A portrait photograph of Hughes appears in Florence Nightingale, Avenging Angel.