A recent book about Florence Nightingale tries to undermine her idealized reputation and downplay her contributions to the field of military medicine. The author asserts that Nightingale did not become supervisor of all female nurses until late in the Crimean war, and contributions from nurses during that war were, at best, marginal. In contrast, a new volume of Nightingale's correspondence casts her influence in a much more positive light. The editors cite her crucial role in the creation of the Royal Commission on the Health of the Army, as well as her founding of a nurses' training hospital in London. The passage is primarily concerned with