Scutari 1854

Extract

In 1854 the English and the French were involved in a war which was the more distressing as epidemics increased the death rate in terrifying proportions. At Scutari, on the Asian bank of the Bosphorous, the Turks had given up to the English an artillery barracks with hospital attached. It was there, in that overcrowded general hospital where the cholera patients came pouring in, that Florence Nightingale and her nurses arrived from England on 5 November. The following three pages from Cecil Woodham-Smith's book suffice to describe the conditions she found there. They show what heroism, tenacity and organizing ability she had to call upon to remedy the situation.