'Diagram of the Causes of Mortality in the Army in the East' by Florence Nightingale -- click to enlarge. Image from Wikipedia/Wiki Commons.
It’s common knowledge that in 1854 Florence Nightingale identified poor hygiene practices as the major cause of mortality in army hospitals in the Crimea. (In fact, she thought the problem was a combination of poor nutrition and over-work. A separate Sanitary Commission arrived six months later to clean up the drainage, improve ventilation and reduce the occurrence of infectious diseases. Florence became a champion of hospital hygience after she returned to England.)
Another popular fact about Nightingale is that she didn’t believe in the new ‘germ theory’ about how infections spread. (Actually, in the early 1880s she wrote an article advocating strict precautions designed to kill germs.)
Florence Nightingale became the first female member of the Royal Statistical Society in 1858. She developed the ‘polar area diagram,’ a form of pie chart, and was a pioneer in the use of what we now call infographics — visual representations of data that can be understood by non-specialists.
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References:
- Wikipedia article
- Lesson plan from the UK National Archives
- Florence Nightingale Museum
- Royal Statistical Society
[Tip o' the hat to London Daily Photo blogger Ham who photographed a statue of Florence and linked to her infographic.]
