Florence Nightingale was a religious maniac and God told her that there were no such things as germs. Her activities in the Crimea were responsible for thousands of deaths
The legend of Florence Nightingale conceals the awful fact that she and her nurses did not save a single life, but rather contributed in no small measure to the death-toll of the Crimean War.
Florence Nightingale is the very epitome of a particular British mythic archetype. She is the personification of the little person who takes on authority; standing up to the leadership of the British army at the height of the Empire and bending them to her will. At a time when a woman’s place was most definitely in the home, here was one woman who not only refused to stay at home, but actually went to war in order to protect the welfare of wounded and ill men. The ’Lady of the Lamp’ is the closest thing which the British have to a national heroine. She has even been awarded the accolade of appearing on the currency; from 1975 to 1994, Florence Nightingale was to be found on £10 notes, leading to that denomination becoming colloquially known as a ’Nightingale’.
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