Sanitary Statistics of Native Colonial Schools and Hospitals

What it is

This is a printed book by Florence Nightingale, published in London in 1863 under the title Sanitary Statistics of Native Colonial Schools and Hospitals. The title page is held by the Wellcome Collection and has a library label at the top left. Appendix I contains tables showing mortality and its causes in colonial schools and hospitals. Appendix II contains abstracts of papers about causes of mortality among Aboriginal races, received from the Colonial Office.

Why it matters

The book shows Nightingale applying statistical survey methods to the health of Indigenous peoples in British colonies. It is a lesser-known part of her work, and it connects her to Sir George Grey, who was then governing at the Cape, and to the Colonial Office, which collected the materials. Nightingale wrote in the book that the material was not yet well developed. Her use of numbers to describe these peoples shows how statistics and empire were linked in her time.

Look closer

• What kinds of information do the tables record, and what do they leave out about the people counted?
• Why does Nightingale say the statistics are incomplete, and who gathered them?
• How might the author's position in the British colonial system shape which facts were recorded?