Florence Nightingale

Florence Nightingale was sent to Turkey by the British government during the Crimean War.

She was intensely disturbed by the lack of sanitary conditions, and fought for years to improve the quality of care. One of her biggest weapons in the battle was statistics she collected data with which she was able to show that many more soldiers died from illnesses contracted due to poor sanitation than from enemy fire. Why were statistics so imperative to making her argument convincing?