'A constutional after a night's nursing', 1890.

Plate taken from the 'Illustrated London News'. Nurses emerge from a hospital and a young girl sells flowers outside. Nursing had become a more 'respectable' way for a young woman to earn a living after the famous career of Florence Nightingale (1820-1910), whose handbook for nurses, 'notes on nurses' was published in 1890. Some provision for training nurses had begun to be made in London hospitals and by 1895 a staff nurse at one of the larger London hospitals could earn up to £40 per year, but long hours and short holidays remained the norm, the eight-hour day having not been introduced in hospitals.