blanket or coarse canvas sheet, in their one shirt, perhaps soaked in blood and dirt.  There were some stores in the hospital, though not enough; and endless difficulty was made about granting them, lest any man should have brought his kit, and thus have a double supply.  Amidst the emergencies of active war, it seems to be an obvious provision that every General Hospital should have in store, with ample bedding, body-linen enough for as many patients as can occupy the beds,—­the consideration being kept in view, that, where the sick and wounded are congregated, more frequent changes of linen are necessary than under any other circumstances.

The excellent and devoted managers of the hospitals of the Union army need no teaching as to the daily administration of the affairs of the wards.  They will never have to do and dare the things that Miss Nightingale had to decide upon, because they have happily had the privilege of arranging their hospitals on their own principles.  They will not know the exasperation of seeing sufferers crowded together on a wooden divan (with an under-stratum of dead rats and rotting rags) while there is an out-house full of bedsteads laid up in store under lock and key.  Not being disposed to acquiesce in such a state of things, and failing in all attempts to get at the authority which had charge of the locked door, Miss Nightingale called to an orderly or two, and commanded them to break open the door.  They stared; but she said she assumed the responsibility; and presently there were as many men in bed as there were bedsteads.  Her doctrine and practice have always been,—­instant and silent obedience to medical and disciplinary orders, without any qualification whatever; and by her example and teaching in this respect she at length overcame the jealousy and prejudices of authorities, medical and military:  but in such a case as the actual presence of necessaries for the sick, sent out by Government or by private charity for their use, she claimed the benefit, and helped her patients to it, when there was no other obstruction in the way than forms and rules never meant to apply to the case.

What the jealousy was appeared through very small incidents.  A leading medical officer declared, in giving evidence, that the reason why the patients’ meals were sometimes served late and cold, or half-cooked, was, that Miss Nightingale and her nurses were forever in the way in the general kitchen, keeping the cooks from the fire:  whereas the fact was, that neither Miss Nightingale nor any nurse had ever entered the general kitchen, on any occasion whatever.  Their way was to have a kitchen of their own.  The very idea of that kitchen was savory in the wards; for out of it came, always at the right moment, arrowroot, hot and of the pleasantest consistence,—­rice puddings, neither hard on the one hand nor clammy on the other,—­cool lemonade for the feverish, cans full of hot tea for the weary, and good coffee for the faint.  When the sinking sufferer was