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Florence Nightingale lived for more than half a century after her return from the Crimea and in all that time she practised the most rigid seclusion in order to save strength for her work. The upper rooms of her house in South Street, London, became the center of a network of reform which spread over the world.

In the heyday of her usefulness she, a semi-invalid, lay on her couch in her upper room, writing, writing, writing. Below in the sitting-room, great statesmen, famous generals, foreign royalties begged for audiences. For many years, the newly appointed Viceroy to India paid her a visit before leaving for his post. She had the admiration of Queen Victoria, who had said when she met Miss Nightingale, "Such a head! I wish we had her at the War Office."

On her return from the Crimea, her friends begged her to rest. Rest! How could she? She could never forget the heroic dead. She could never forget that many of her "children" were lying in their forgotten graves from causes which might have been prevented.

Her experience in the Crimea, when it was happening, had been her job. After it was over, it had become an example. She said: "The sanitary history of the Crimean campaign . . . is a complete example—history does not afford its equal—of an army, after a great disaster arising from neglects, having been brought into the highest state of health and efficiency." Now was the time to drive home the lesson of this example. With the help of Sidney Herbert, she set out to reform the Army Medical Service. She found that even in the army at home the death rate was nearly double that of civil life. "You might as well take 1,100 men every year out upon Salisbury Plain and shoot them," she said grimly.