The Beauty of Diagrams is a Scientific Documentary programme.

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The Beauty of Diagrams: Florence Nightingale

Series 1, episode 4

Marcus du Sautoy explores the stories behind familiar scientific diagrams. Florence Nightingale is best known as the Crimean War's Lady of the Lamp, but she was also a superb statistician. Nightingale's post-war report revealed that out of 18,000 deaths, 16,000 had been due to infectious diseases in hospital rather than battle wounds. Her revolutionary and controversial rose diagram was designed to persuade the government that, if sanitation in hospitals was improved, many deaths could be avoided.