Florence Nightingale (1820-1910) the English nurse and hospital reformer. Her popular image as 'the lady with the lamp' was earned through her tireless caring of the wounded during the Crimean war in 1854. Her experiences there convinced her of the need to take a sanitarian approach to hospital design. Hitherto, hospitals had actually encouraged the spread of disease through overcrowding, poor ventilation and bad drains. She publicized the miasma theory of disease, in particular typhus, while advocating light and airy hospitals with clean staff and good sanitary engineering.