A Short Story of Florence Nightingale

Initially, I thought that the material of this lecture not far from the Land Conservation and Irrigation Engineering I. Because the first lecture, then I think the material will talking about the introduction of soil conservation in Japan, the origin of them conserve their land, why lan conservation is important, the techniques of soil conservation that they have used and several soil conservation case studies in Japan.

As usual, every lecture material already available on the campus web site and even the officer send it to each student email. Students simply download and bring it the material to the classroom. However, after I downloaded it, I was confuse to see the material. My prediction missed from the target. We were only given a sheet of paper of which only a few pictures along with a brief and simple questions about the pictures such as “who is this lady?. What is the book?, who are they? And who wrote this color graph?”.

Actually, the material for this lecture is about Florence Nightingale. Then I was confuse and wondering what is the relationship between Florence Nightingale with Land Conservation and Irrigation Engineering. Due to my knowledge that Florence Nightingale was a pioneer of nursing. But through this lecture, I know the other side of Florence Nightingale. 


She is a wealth lady, have a high humanitarian spirit, and also intelligent. Through this lecture too, I know who is the inventor of pie chart. Like me, perhaps many student do not know about Florence Nightingale. She was one of the world’s greatest woman in history. Born in Florence, Italy on May 12, 1820. Like R.A Kartini and Dewi Sartika (my national heroes in Indonesia), Florence Nightingale is also the figure of woman of noble wealthy, regardless of the surroundings, and got the call to fight for the dignity of women and nurses in particular for women of her time. Where at the time, especially in Britain, people assume that professional nursing is a profession for women inferior, especially for the wealthy and educated women like Florence Nightingale. 
Besides known as a pioneer of nursing, interest and mathematical abilities since early childhood had made Florence become one of the characters who played a role important in terms of statistics. Florence Neightingale famous have been using imaginari, logic, and common sense to determine the factors most likely to cause disease. She used statistical analysis in order to save many human lives. The report notes Matters Affecting the Health of the British Army (1858), Florence found a pie chart to create statistic graphs to show more soldiers died from the condition of the hospital environment is not healthy than because of the war.
Finally, Through this lecture I know the story of Florence Nightingale who was willing to leave the comfort zone in order to helping others. With her intelligence, she found the solution of problems faced at the time. She has contributed greatly not only for her nation but also for the world, not only about nursing but also about the development of statistical science and its applications. The story of Florence Nightingale is worthy to set an example for other women, especially for women in developing countries like me. That to advance the nation, other than a tough men, it is necessary also women who are not only beautiful and intelligent but also women must have a high humanitarian spirit. 
Thank you very much for Prof. Takeo Maruyama Sensei lecture.