Note on the Aboriginal Races of Australia. (A Paper read at the Annual Meeting of the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science, held at York, September, 1864.)

NIGHTINGALE, Florence.

Published by London: [Emily Faithfull, Printer and publisher in ordinary to Her Majesty, Victoria Press,] 1865

About this Item

First edition, offprint issue, of Nightingale's study of the treatment of indigenous Australians in British hospitals. Amid the European expansion and settler conflict of 19th-century Australia, the Aboriginal population was declining rapidly. British hospitals continued to provide treatment to indigenous Australians, whose survival in the colony was viewed as a matter of national concern. By 1865, Nightingale was working to implement her reforms on an institutional scale, and had contributed several commissions examining public health in British colonies. Much of her data for the current paper was gathered by missionaries: a key recommendation was an official infrastructure for collecting mortality statistics. Nightingale concludes that poor sanitation and alcohol were among the primary causes for higher death rates, but she also notes that European contact itself was damaging the Aboriginal population: "as soon as native habits and customs begin to undergo change under European influences, the work of destruction has at the same time begun" (p. 3). Nightingale's paper was originally published in Transactions of the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science the same year: Bishop and Goldie list the journal issue first, but no formal priority has been established. Belt 15; Bishop & Goldie 95 (ii). Lynn McDonald, Florence Nightingale: An Introduction to Her Life and Family, 2010. Octavo, pp. 8. Original printed wrappers. Front wrapper re-attached, otherwise a very good copy indeed.

Seller Inventory # 187671

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Note on the Aboriginal Races of Australia. (A Paper read at the Annual Meeting of the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science, held at York, September, 1864.)
• Publisher: London: [Emily Faithfull, Printer and publisher in ordinary to Her Majesty, Victoria Press,] 1865
• Edition: 1st Edition