With supreme skill, she kept this sword of Damocles
poised above the Bison's head, and more than once she was
actually on the point of really dropping it-- for his
recalcitrancy grew and grew.
The personnel of the Commission once determined upon, there was a
struggle, which lasted for six months, over the nature of its
powersWas it to be an efficient body, armed with the right of
full inquiry and wide examination, or was it to be a polite
official contrivance for exonerating Dr. Andrew Smith? The War
Office phalanx closed its ranks, and fought tooth and nail; but
it was defeated: the Bison was bullyable. 'Three months from this
day,' Miss Nightingale had written at last, 'I publish my
experience of the Crimean Campaign, and my suggestions for
improvement, unless there has been a fair and tangible pledge by
that time for reform.' Who could face that?
And, if the need came, she meant to be as good as her word. For
she had now determined, whatever might be the fate of the
Commission, to draw up her own report upon the questions at
issue. The labour involved was enormous; her health was almost
desperate; but she did not flinch, and after six months of
incredible industry she had put together and written with her own
hand her Notes affecting the Health, Efficiency, and Hospital
Administration of the British Army.
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