Florence Nightingale.

Florence Nightingale.

Detail map of London, England, United Kingdom Overview map of London, England, United Kingdom

A: London, England, United Kingdom

Florence Nightingale's Rose Diagram

1858 to 1/1859
Detail from Nightingale

Detail from Nightingale's "Diagram of the Causes of Mortality in the Army of the East. Please click on the link below to view and resize full image.  Please see http://understandinguncertainty.org/coxcombs for an interactive version of the coxcombs.

In 1858 nurse, statistician, and reformer Florence Nightingale published Notes on Matters Affecting the Health, Efficiency, and Hospital Administration of the British Army. Founded Chiefly on the Experience of the Late War. Presented by Request to the Secretary of State for War. This privately printed work contained a color statistical graphic entitled "Diagram of the Causes of Mortality in the Army of the East" which showed that epidemic disease, which was responsible for more British deaths in the course of the Crimean War than battlefield wounds, could be controlled by a variety of factors including nutrition, ventilation, and shelter. The graphic, which Nightingale used as a way to explain complex statistics simply, clearly, and persuasively, has become known as Nightingale's "Rose Diagram." 

In January 1859 Nightingale more offically published and distributed  A Contribution to the the Sanitary History of the British Army During the Late War with Russia. This also contained a copy of the Rose Diagram.

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