Cleaning up the Act
The 'filth disorder and neglect' at Scutari had been forcefully highlighted by Florence Nightingale in her correspondence with Sidney Herbert, so it was no surprise that one of the first acts of the new Palmerston government had been to appoint a Sanitary Commission to go at once to the war zone.
Their terms of reference and liberty of action were unusually direct, and delivered with a sense of urgency reminiscent of Florence herself. " It is important that you be deeply impressed with the necessity of not resting content with an order, but that you see instantly, by yourselves or your agents, to the commencement of the work, and to its superintendance day by day until it is finished."
Some historians see the hand of Flo herself behind the instruction; it is certainly couched in her style of prose, but then Lord Shaftesbury or Lord Palmerston, both old friends, or even Lord Panmure, could easily have become conditioned to the compulsive rhythm of her voluminous correspondence - a bit like the tune you can't get out of your head. She had certainly complained loud and long, that the first parliamentary commission had done nothing; probably tongue in cheek, as their investigation was thorough and their recommendations detailed and valid; they interviewed Florence twice and would have certainly have told her their mission was for fact finding only; if not she would have asked them.
The Sanitary Commission was composed of two doctors, John Sutherland and Robert Rawlinson, who saw their role in public health primarily as sanitary engineers, and Hector Gavin who was one by profession. Under the pioneering Edwin Chadwick they had been involved in the radical overhaul of urban sewage disposal arrangements in Britain which by the end of the century would culminate in conjunction with Crapper's 'Valveless Water Waste Preventer' and Brunel's engineering flair, in the system which has just about survived in Britain's main cities to this day. Shortly after their arrival on 6th March, Gavin went to visit his brother William who was veterinary surgeon with the 17th Lancers - a pistol accidently went off when being passed between them - there were witnesses who declined to say who might have pulled the trigger - Gavin died. William died three weeks later, 'of cholera' according to his father's account - if true it was one isolated case in the 17th Lancers for several months either side. A strange story indeed. Rawlinson had wanted to sightsee at the front and whilst playing 'chicken' with a Russian cannonball, was hit a glancing blow and had to be evacuated back to England. That left Sutherland and his team consisting of the Borough Engineer and three sanitary inspectors from Liverpool, Britain's least insanitary city at the time. Sutherland swore them in on the spot as Inspectors of Nuisances and they started work at the Barrack Hospital.
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