Florence Nightingale visiting hospitals. Historical artwork of British nurse Florence Nightingale (1820-1910, centre), on a visit to field hospitals in Balaclava, Ukraine, during the Crimean War (1853-1856). Nightingale was dispatched by the British government to inspect the army hospitals in the Crimea and to improve hygiene, the appalling sanitary conditions there having caused the deaths of thousands of British soldiers. Her efforts greatly reduced mortality among the sick. On her return to England she wrote the textbook Notes on Nursing (1860), the first definitive textbook in the field. Artwork taken from the Illustrated London News, 23rd June, 1855.