This is a very good copy of the first American edition, published in 1860 by Appleton & Co. in New York, bound in blue cloth with gilt blind-stamped title on cover. Some rubs to cover and small, thin ink stain. The bottom of the spine has a small pasted label with number in black indicating the book was likely part of a library, perhaps attached to a hospital. The flyleaf is inscribed: “Louise W. Knox.” This may be Louise Wakeman Knox (1851-1904,) who was the daughter of Rev. James Hall Mason Knox, later married Louis Comfort Tiffany, and had a place in the social register. She would have been too young to be a Civil War nurse, but she and the family were likely involved in some charitable causes and Nightingale’s work is generally taken to be the inspiration for the US Sanitary Commission in the Civil War.

Nightingale (1820-1910) had been a nurse in the Crimean War and tried, with others, to introduce some basic standards of sanitation, cleanliness and hygiene, diet, warmth, fresh air, etc.  into military hospitals. She also took part in various social causes and was adept at using statistics and charts to get her points across to politicians and the medical establishment. The British edition of this book came out in 1859 and was used in the nursing school she established in London in 1860, and essentially is the foundation of trained and professional nursing.

This merits a place in any Civil War medical collection. As inspiration for the U.S. Sanitary Commission it was certainly with its various members in the field and at military hospitals.  [sr] [ph:m/L]

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