Surgery in Bengal : an address to the Bengal branch of the British Medical Association / by J. Fayrer.

  • Fayrer, Sir Joseph, 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 / by J. Fayrer. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    rooms for patients, of waiting-rooms for attendants, and of rooms for the Physicians and Surgeons for the purposes of con- venience or consultation. The narrow verandahs, scarcely broad enough for two persons to pass each other, the loca- tion of Ophthalmic wards in the dark and damp ground floor, the presence of the operating theatre in the most exposed and prominent, instead of the most secluded and retired part of the Hospital, and other defects which I need not detain you to detail. All these, I say, mar the perfection of this, otherwise, noble Institution. These defects are, to a certain extent, remediable, and already something has been done, and more is in contemplation. The time, I trust, is not far distant, when the Surgical wards will be where those now occupied by the Midwifery Department are, and that Institution will be replaced, as it most assuredly should be, by a separate and distinct one, such as the Metro- polis of India might and ought to maintain. Cholera and accident wards have just been added, and the Dispensary has been removed to the ground floor, whence we hope ere long to see the Ophthalmic Department removed to take its place in a separate and appropriate building. Defects remain which, from the construction of the build- ing, situated as it is in a crowded part of the city, are perhaps irremediable, but still the Hospital is susceptible of consider- able improvement, and though it may never reach the highest standard of perfection, its utility may be increased and its salubrity improved. Public attention is now more directed to Hospital construc- tion and hygiene, and defects of the class I have alluded to will doubtless receive the attention and consideration they merit. The construction of Hospitals on modern principles, with all that is most desirable for the welfare of the patients, whether Surgical or Medical, will, no doubt, be the anxious consideration of the authorities; and the marked interest evinced by Government in State Sanitation is demonstrated by the appointment of a Sanitary Commission to watch over and supervise these and kindred subjects. With reference to the Hospitals of the Civil stations, I should like to have said something more than time will admit of. But I would especially advert to the Mitford Hospital
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