Florence Nightingale: The Biostatistician

Table 2

Nightingale’s Scientific Society Presentations

Year Presentation
1860 International Statistical Congress (London): two presentations advocating uniform hospital statistics and referencing her uniform classification system and forms.
1861 National Association for the Promotion of Social Science (Dublin): proposed seven primary elements for tabulating hospital sickness statistics.
1862 Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: published statistics of the various hospitals adopting her forms
1863 National Association for the Promotion of Social Science (Liverpool): two presentations on hospital construction and sanitation from her extensive experience in and study of hospital systems in Germany, France, Ireland, and the Crimea.
1863 International Statistical Congress (Berlin): outlined the minimum requirements of a report form for the nature and result of surgical operations, including hospital cost and practical end results.
1863 National Association for the Promotion of Social Science (Edinburgh): reported statistics on the causes of high mortality among native races during British colonization.
1864 National Association for the Promotion of Social Science (York, England): an extension of the 1863 paper, examining mortality of the aboriginal races in Australia.
1873 National Association for the Promotion of Social Science: “How some People have Lived and Not Died in India,” a summary of 10 years of progress in instituting sanitary reforms in India.
1877 Nineteenth Century magazine: “The People in India” gave principal facts about the Indian famines, compiling statistics starting in 1874 on the effect of irrigation on life and health in India.

This Article

  1. MI April 2011 vol. 11 no. 2 63-71