The fate of the vital
recommendation in the Commission's Report--the appointment of
four Sub-Commissions charged with the duty of determining upon
the details of the proposed reforms and of putting them into
execution--still hung in the balance. The Bison consented to
everything; and then, on a flying visit to London, withdrew his
consent and hastily returned to Scotland. Then for many weeks all
business was suspended; he had gout--gout in the hands-- so that
he could not write. 'His gout was always handy,' remarked Miss
Nightingale. But eventually it was clear even to the Bison that
the game was up, and the inevitable surrender came.
There was, however, one point in which he triumphed over Miss
Nightingale: the building of Netley Hospital had been begun under
his orders, before her return to England. Soon after her arrival
she examined the plans, and found that they reproduced all the
worst faults of an out-of-date and mischievous system of hospital
construction. She therefore urged that the matter should be
reconsidered, and in the meantime the building stopped. But the
Bison was obdurate; it would be very expensive, and in any case
it was too late. Unable to make any impression on him, and
convinced of the extreme importance of the question, she
determined to appeal to a higher authority. Lord Palmerston was
Prime Minister; she had known him from her childhood; he was a
near neighbour of her father's in the New Forest.
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