Surgery in Bengal : an address to the Bengal branch of the British Medical Association : at the annual general meeting, 14th February 1865.

  • Fayrer, Joseph, Sir, 1824-1907.
Date:
1865
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Surgery in Bengal : an address to the Bengal branch of the British Medical Association : at the annual general meeting, 14th February 1865. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    important consideration of ventilation and abundance of cubic space were fully considered, at the same time that archi- tectural beauty was not forgotten. But I confess, with all respect for its designers, that it is difficult to understand how it escaped, if it did escape their notice, that the wards would be ventilated from end to end, and that thus the miasm of the patients at one end must be blown, according to the prevailing winds, down to the patients at the other (viresque acquirit eundo). Nor is this objection a fanciful one, or merely of theory. I am quite aware that many degrees of departure from the ideal of perfection may be admitted, and yet, practically, a good and healthy Hospital may result. But I cannot say that it has been so here; I and my colleagues know that it is not, and that this is one of the causes of increased mortality which, I am happy to say, has been somewhat abated since the council-room, a large ward with cross ventilation, has been converted into a surgical ward. Moreover, the intercommunication of the wards, as is the case in the arrangement of this Hospital, where they all open into one another by arched spaces, though admirably adapted for the Halls of a college, library, or public institute, is not so well adapted for the treatment of the sick, who are thus ren- dered incapable of segregation or classification. It cannot be expected, under these circumstances, that the standard of suc- cess should be very high, where the emanations of Fever, Bowel-complaints, Pysemia, &c., &c., commingle and diffuse themselves throughout the common atmosphere. The pre- sence, too, of Lying-in-Wards within the walls of the Institu- tion is at variance with the existing views of Hospital hy- giene, and, if I may say so, suggests the expediency of remov- ing this very preventible cause of disease, and the advantage that would result from devoting the space it occupies to the reception of Surgical cases, thus effecting a more complete separation from the Medical cases, which would remain on the other side. There are many other defects which I might notice, such as the absence of all means of classification of disease—of wards for infectious diseases, and, until lately, of accident or cholera wards, of proper reception and waiting-rooms for out-patients and those seeking admission. The want of convenient bath-
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