|
|
|
More than a century and a half ago, the flames in this painting could have symbolized the fever of diseases that made military hospitals ten times deadlier than even the battlefields of the Crimean War. Florence Nightingale’s introducing modern sanitation and hygiene reduced mortality so dramatically that the British government caused the first prefabricated military hospital to be built. Yes, M*A*S*H — the mobile army surgical hospital of the Korean War and television fame — can claim Florence Nightingale as its founding patron saint.
Today, the flames represent the real fires of war in the same general area as in Florence Nightingale’s time. For most of history, it was easier to heal the soul than the body. Thanks to the heroes and heroines of medicine, the dilemma is now reversed.
—note by Don Webb
Return to the Readers’ Guide...
