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| |
| Private | |
| London October 24/95 | |
| Dear Mrs. Leiter | |
| I send you the two | |
| pamphlets: (-"Bucks¹ Pan'4 Confer'e | |
| -"Health at Home | |
| according to your requests, | |
| & Mr. Fredk Verney's² two | |
| copies which you wished | |
| to return to him yourself- | |
| May I take the liberty of | |
| adding to these | |
| "Rural Hygiene"³: a pamphlet | |
| to carry out "Health at Home" | |
| & enlarge it | |
| Mrs. Cheadle's Short "Report" | |
| on our two "Health Missioners"4 | |
| We requested her to go | |
| down to N. Bucks to give | |
| us an unbiased report. | |
| She was for many years the | |
| most efficient Supt. of our | |
| District Nurses. |
2. Frederick Verney was Miss Nightingale's nephew, the son of her sister Parthenope and Sir Harry Verney. He was an ordained deacon and also served as the chairman of the Technical Education Committee for North Bucks. By exerting his influence and declaring the education of Lady Health Missioners to be technical, Mr. Verney was able to secure funding for the Missioners' courses.
3. The full title of this pamphlet is probably Health Teaching in Towns and Villages, Rural Hygiene. The 1894 pamphlet was written by Miss Nightingale and published in London by Spottiswoode and Co., New Street Square. According to Monteiro, this 27 page pamphlet was initially prepared for the Conference of Women Workers on November 7, 1893. The pamphlet "reviews the problems of rural poor and the dreadful condition of sanitation (water, refuse, sewage)." In the pamphlet, Miss Nightingale argued for "fully trained nurses for every district...a water supply pure and plentiful;...School teaching of health rules."
4. Miss Nightingale is referring to Lady Health Missioners, women trained to teach village mothers the fundamental health principles to be applied in the home. The Missioners' training consisted of a series of lectures given by the Medical Officer of Health. The trainees then engaged in practical work in North Bucks. This was followed by an examination; those who passed completed additional practical work. Finally, the trainees were engaged as Health Missioners by the Technical Education Committee (Woodham-Smith, p. 582).
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