Florence Nightingale Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! === Statistics and sanitary reform === Florence Nightingale exhibited a gift for mathematics from an early age and excelled in the subject under the tutelage of her father.{{efn|There were rumours that she was tutored by an eminent mathematician who was a friend of the family. Mark Bostridge says, "There appears to be no documentary evidence to connect Florence with [[James Joseph Sylvester|J. J. Sylvester]]."<ref>{{cite book|first=Mark|last=Bostridge|title=Florence Nightingale: The Making of an Icon|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M-FEXr2kf7AC&pg=PT1172|year=2008|page=1172|publisher=Macmillan |isbn=9781466802926|access-date=12 December 2015|archive-date=4 June 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160604014110/https://books.google.com/books?id=M-FEXr2kf7AC&pg=PT1172|url-status=live}}</ref>}} Later, Nightingale became a pioneer in the visual presentation of information and [[statistical graphics]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Lewi |first=Paul J. |author-link=Paul Lewi |title=Speaking of Graphics |year=2006 |url=http://www.datascope.be/sog.htm |access-date=8 May 2008 |archive-date=11 March 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090311012925/http://www.datascope.be/sog.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> She used methods such as the [[pie chart]], which had first been developed by [[William Playfair]] in 1801.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Playfair|first1=William|author-link1=William Playfair|last2=Wainer|first2=Howard|author-link2=Howard Wainer|last3=Spence|first3=Ian|author-link3=Ian Spence (psychologist)|title=Playfair's Commercial and Political Atlas and Statistical Breviary|year=2005|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9780521855549}}</ref> While taken for granted now, it was at the time a relatively novel method of presenting data.<ref name=Cohen1984>{{cite journal |last=Cohen |first=I. Bernard |author-link=I. Bernard Cohen |title=Florence Nightingale |journal=Scientific American |volume=250 |pages=128β137 |date=March 1984 |doi=10.1038/scientificamerican0384-128 |pmid= 6367033 |issue= 3 |bibcode=1984SciAm.250c.128C|s2cid=5409191 }} (alternative pagination depending on country of sale: 98β107, bibliography on p. 114) [http://www.unc.edu/~nielsen/soci708/ online article β see documents link at left] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100705052627/http://www.unc.edu/~nielsen/soci708/ |date=5 July 2010 }}</ref> Indeed, Nightingale is described as "a true pioneer in the graphical representation of statistics" and is especially well known for her usage of a [[polar area diagram]],<ref name=Cohen1984/>{{rp|page=107}} or occasionally the ''Nightingale rose diagram'', equivalent to a modern circular [[histogram]], to illustrate seasonal sources of patient mortality in the military field hospital she managed. While frequently credited as the creator of the polar area diagram, it is known to have been used by AndrΓ©-Michel Guerry in 1829<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Friendly |first1=Michael |title=A.-M. Guerry's Moral Statistics of France: Challenges for Multivariable Spatial Analysis |journal=Statistical Science |year=2007 |volume=22 |issue=3 |publisher=Institute of Mathematical Statistics |doi=10.1214/07-STS241 |arxiv=0801.4263 |s2cid=13536171 }}</ref> and LΓ©on Louis Lalanne by 1830.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Wilkinson |first1=Leland |title=The Grammar of Graphics |date=28 January 2006 |publisher=Springer Science & Business Media |page=209 |isbn=9780387286952 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NRyGnjeNKJIC&pg=PA209 |access-date=26 April 2022}}</ref> Nightingale called a compilation of such diagrams a "coxcomb", but later that term would frequently be used for the individual diagrams.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.york.ac.uk/depts/maths/histstat/small.htm |title=Publication explaining Nightingale's use of 'coxcomb' |access-date=19 August 2014 |archive-date=26 November 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141126012626/http://www.york.ac.uk/depts/maths/histstat/small.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> She made extensive use of coxcombs to present reports on the nature and magnitude of the conditions of medical care in the Crimean War to [[Parliament of the United Kingdom|Members of Parliament]] and civil servants who would have been unlikely to read or understand traditional statistical reports. In 1859, Nightingale was elected the first female member of the [[Royal Statistical Society]].<ref>{{cite web |title=About us |url=http://www.rss.org.uk/RSS/About/About_the_RSS/RSS/About_the_RSS/About_top.aspx?hkey=679e724a-2a6c-4325-922b-8ac53b9b696a |website=Royal Statistical Society |access-date=26 October 2017 |archive-date=27 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171027024716/http://www.rss.org.uk/RSS/About/About_the_RSS/RSS/About_the_RSS/About_top.aspx?hkey=679e724a-2a6c-4325-922b-8ac53b9b696a |url-status=live }}</ref> In 1874 she became an honorary member of the [[American Statistical Association]].<ref>Norman L. Johnson, Samuel Kotz (2011). Leading Personalities in Statistical Sciences: From the Seventeenth Century to the Present". p. 314. John Wiley & Sons.</ref> [[File:Nightingale-mortality.jpg|thumb|right|"''[[polar area diagram|Diagram]] of the causes of mortality in the army in the East''" by Florence Nightingale]] Her attention turned to the health of the British Army in [[India]] and she demonstrated that bad drainage, contaminated water, overcrowding, and poor ventilation were causing the high death rate.<ref>Professional Nursing Practice: Concepts and perspective, Koernig & Hayes, sixth edition, 2011, p. 100.</ref> Following the report ''The Royal Commission on India'' (1858β1863), which included drawings done by her cousin, artist [[Bonham Carter family|Hilary Bonham Carter]], with whom Nightingale had lived,{{efn|[many letters were written by Nightingale to her cousin Hilary Bonham-Carter] ... Royal Commission on India (1858β1863) ... feeling that her cousin was neglecting her art, [Nightingale] made Hilary Bonham Carter leave ... the Indian embroidery belonged to dear Hilary ...<ref>{{cite book |last1=Mc Donald |first1=L. |title=Florence Nightingale: An Introduction to Her Life and Family: Collected Works of Florence Nightingale |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2dJ0CwAAQBAJ&q=hilary+bonham+carter+florence+nightingale++indian&pg=PA37 |access-date=8 August 2019 |pages=36, 37, 429, 449, etc. |isbn=9780889207042 |date=28 January 2010 |publisher=Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press |archive-date=10 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210310015804/https://books.google.com/books?id=2dJ0CwAAQBAJ&q=hilary+bonham+carter+florence+nightingale++indian&pg=PA37 |url-status=live }}</ref>}} Nightingale concluded that the health of the army and the people of India had to go hand in hand and so campaigned to improve the sanitary conditions of the country as a whole.<ref name="BBC 2017"/> Nightingale made a comprehensive statistical study of [[sanitation]] in Indian rural life and was the leading figure in the introduction of improved medical care and public health service in India. In 1858 and 1859, she successfully lobbied for the establishment of a Royal Commission into the Indian situation. Two years later, she provided a report to the commission, which completed its own study in 1863. "After 10 years of sanitary reform, in 1873, Nightingale reported that mortality among the soldiers in India had declined from 69 to 18 per 1,000".<ref name=Cohen1984/>{{rp|page=107}} The Royal Sanitary Commission of 1868β1869 presented Nightingale with an opportunity to press for compulsory sanitation in private houses. She lobbied the minister responsible, [[James Stansfeld]], to strengthen the proposed Public Health Bill to require owners of existing properties to pay for connection to mains drainage.<ref>{{cite book |title=Florence Nightingale on Public Health Care |last=McDonald |first=Lynn |pages=550}}</ref> The strengthened legislation was enacted in the Public Health Acts of 1874 and 1875. At the same time, she combined with the retired sanitary reformer [[Edwin Chadwick]] to persuade Stansfeld to devolve powers to enforce the law to Local Authorities, eliminating central control by medical technocrats.<ref>{{cite book |title=Sir John Simon, 1816β1904 |last=Lambert |first=Royston |publisher=McGibbon & Kee |year=1963 |pages=521β523}}</ref> Her Crimean War statistics had convinced her that non-medical approaches were more effective given the state of knowledge at the time. Historians now believe that both drainage and devolved enforcement played a crucial role in increasing average national life expectancy by 20 years between 1871 and the mid-1930s during which time medical science made no impact on the most fatal epidemic diseases.<ref name=Constable1998/><ref name="Florence Nightingale to Her Nurses (1914)"/><ref>{{cite journal |title=The Importance of Social Intervention in Britain's Mortality Decline c. 1850β1914 |last=Szreter |first=Simon |journal=Soc. Hist. Med. |volume=1 |year=1988 |page=1037}}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page