曾经有一个洛伦斯·南丁格尔关于健康五要的名言已经进入小学语文教材。英国著名护士南丁格尔曾经说过，人要健康，需要五要，清洁空气、澄清饮水、扫洒屋宇、疏通沟渠、日光充足。(南丁格尔名言:人生欲求安全，当有五要。一是清洁空气，二是澄清饮水，三是疏通沟渠，四是扫洒屋宇，五是日光充足。)虽然说南丁格尔是鸦片战争后英国的著名护士，好像这个五要有点不够学术。查找一下来源，发现这个内容来自她写的一本护士教学用的教材。Notes on Nursing，应该是护理须知，既然是护理须知，那么说“健康五要”似乎是让护士给患者讲解健康知识，其中“空气、水和日光”似乎符合健康知识，“扫洒屋宇”是讲的环境条件，做扫除和讲卫生有关系，那么这个疏通沟渠就显得莫名其妙了。开始我甚至想，也许她是隐含着大小便通畅，但又感觉这个比喻不太妥当。难道作为护士专业的创始人，竟然也会犯低级错误？

继续查找出处，发现所谓的“健康五要”是来自该教材Notes on Nursing的第二章，"Health of Houses," 这个“健康居住”中有这样的内容she sets out the five essential points in securing health in houses -namely, pure air, pure water, efficient drainage, cleanliness, and light.原来如此，这句话本来意思应该是，居住卫生需要强调5个方面的问题，通风良好、干净的水、下水道通畅、卫生和采光是健康居住的五个要素。看来有一些广为流传的所谓名言，可能是一种错误的翻译。把南丁格尔名言说成:人生欲求安全，当有五要。一是清洁空气，二是澄清饮水，三是疏通沟渠，四是扫洒屋宇，五是日光充足。实在太有才了，幸亏她不懂中文。否则让夜鹰老太太听到，非得气得从棺材里爬出来骂人不可。而这样的名言也可以进入小学语文教材，学生可以凭借记忆背诵，不知道老师该如何给学生解读其含义。

Notes on Nursing

Notes on Nursing: What it is and What it is Not is a book first published by Florence Nightingale in 1859^[1]. A 136-page volume, it was intended to give hints on nursing to those entrusted with the health of others. Florence Nightingale stressed that it was not meant to be a comprehensive guide from which to teach one's self to be a nurse but to help in the practice of treating others.

In her introduction to the 1974 edition, Joan Quixley, then head of the Nightingale School of Nursing, wrote that despite the passage of time since Notes on Nursing was published, "the book astonishes one with its relevance to modern attitudes and skills in nursing, whether this be practised at home by the 'ordinary woman', in hospital or in the community. The social, economic and professional differences of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in no way hinder the young student or pupil from developing, if he or she is motivated to do so, its unchanged fundamentals by way of intelligent thought and practice". "With its mid-nineteenth century background of poverty, neglect, ignorance and prejudice the book was a challenge to contemporary views of nursing, of nurses and of the patient". "The book was the first of its kind ever to be written. It appeared at a time when the simple rules of health were only beginning to be known, when its topics were of vital importance not only for the well-being and recovery of patients, when hospitals were riddled with infection, when nurses were still mainly regarded as ignorant, uneducated persons. The book has, inevitably, its place in the history of nursing, for it was written by the founder of modern nursing".^[2]

The book included advice and practices for the following areas:

• ventilation and warming
• health in houses
• petty management (how things are done by others when you must be away)
• noise
• variety (environment)
• taking food and what kinds of food
• bed and bedding
• light
• cleanliness of rooms
• personal cleanliness
• chattering hopes and advices (the false assurances and recommendations of family and friends to the sick)
• observation of the sick

   In Chapter Two, "Health of Houses," she sets out the five essential points in securing health in houses -namely, pure air, pure water, efficient drainage, cleanliness, and light. Miss Nightingale goes on to cite the disastrous consequences of contaminated water.