NIGHTINGALE, Florence (1820-1910). Notes on Nursing: what it is, and what it is not. London: Harrison, [1860]. 8° (213 x 140mm). Publisher's advertisements on endpapers (lightly spotted). Original black pebbled cloth, title in gilt on front cover (lower inner hinges cracked, slight wear along joints). Provenance: THE NORMAN COPY.

NIGHTINGALE, Florence (1820-1910). Notes on Nursing: what it is, and what it is not. London: Harrison, [1860]. 8° (213 x 140mm). Publisher's advertisements on endpapers (lightly spotted). Original black pebbled cloth, title in gilt on front cover (lower inner hinges cracked, slight wear along joints). Provenance: THE NORMAN COPY.

FIRST EDITION, third issue, with '[The right of translation is reserved]' on title, and textual errors uncorrected. The work was intended to 'give hints for thought to women who have personal charge for the health of others', which Nightingale considered to include the vast majority of women at some point in their lives. She included statistics showing over 65,000 women employed as nurses in 1851, some younger than 10 years old. Nightingale stressed the importance of good nursing for recovery, and the fact that no medical knowledge was required in order to be a good nurse. While she did not herself know the bacterial theory of infectious diseases, she did realize the importance to health of fresh air, cleanliness, pure water and good drainage. Garrison-Morton 1612; cf. Heirs of Hippocrates 1884 (second issue); Norman 1602.