Hospital plans : Five essays relating to the construction, organization & management of hospitals / contributed by their authors for the use of the Johns Hopkins hospital of Baltimore.

  • Johns Hopkins Hospital.
Date:
1875
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Hospital plans : Five essays relating to the construction, organization & management of hospitals / contributed by their authors for the use of the Johns Hopkins hospital of Baltimore. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

    47/546 (page 19)
    V. IIEATIXG AND VEXTTLATIi »X. With regard to heating, it is necessary to keep in view the peculiarities of the climate of Baltimore. I append a table (A i showing the average annual temperature of Baltimore, with maxima and minima, for the last 45 years : also a table (B) showing the monthly means, maxima and min- ima, for the last five years. Also table (C) giving the mean di- rection of tlie winds for the same period.* Prom these tables it will be seen that we have to provide for temperatures varying from zero to about 100° F. For at least three months in the year special provision against cold will be needed, and this, if ventilation is allowed, can only be effectually secured by warming the air before it is admitted into the wards, which can best be effected by the use of hot water 01 Bteam, in what is known as the method of indirect radiation. The use of hot water on the low pressure system as a means of heating is specially satisfactory in hospitals, for the reason that the air is warmed by a large surface at a comparatively low tem- perature, which in the heating cods rarely need be over 150° F. in this locality, and air thus warmed is much more agreeable and salutary than when heated to over 200° F., as it musi be by fur- nace or steam radiators. The principal objection to the hot-water apparatus is that in the rapid changes of temperature which oc- cur in this climate in spring and autumn, amounting sometimes to 40° F. in a few hours, it is less manageable than steam, requir- ing a much larger time to heat and to cool. In the plan of hospital which I shall recommend, an essential feature of which is that the pavdions shall be totally separated, and therefore cover a larger space than is usual, it is a question as to whether it wdlbe advantageous or possible to centralize the heating apparatus, especially if hot water is used, so that the supply may all come from one or two boUers, or whether it will not be better that the heating apparatus shall be divided into several sections, even to the extent of giving one to each building. * [For these tables I am indebted to the courtesy of the Chief Signal Officer of the Army.]