Infirmaries, hospitals for invalids, field lazarettos.

  • Beckmann, Johann, 1739-1811.
Date:
[1846]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Infirmaries, hospitals for invalids, field lazarettos. 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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    cure gave their money and effects, or a considerable part of them, to some brotherhood, either in consequence of a vow, or in order to show their gratitude. On this account the hos- pitals in Palestine could be constructed on a larger scale, and provided with better accommodations, than any before seen in Europe. They were therefore considered as models; and princes and rich persons, on returning safe from their pilgrimages, caused similar ones to be established in their own countries. Many princes even brought with them to Europe members of these brotherhoods, which in the course of time were converted into orders of knighthood, that they might employ them in the erection of hospitals. Instances of this circumstance have been given by Mohsen, in his History of the Sciences in the Mark of Brandenburg, and these might be easily increased. In the same author may be seen an account of the establishment of houses for the recep- tion of persons afflicted with cutaneous disorders, and of their conversion into pest-houses. I shall here only remark, that these inns and hospitals contributed, in no small degree, to facilitate the travelling of mercantile people, who in the in- fancy of trade, when the roads were insecure and no means of conveyance established, were obliged to accompany their merchandise themselves. The assertion of Muratori, however, that the oldest hospi- tals were not properly established for sick travellers, but rather for the sound, is undoubtedly true; and it appears that hospitals, according to the meaning of the word at pre- sent, that is, such as were destined for the sick alone, were not introduced before the eleventh century. The above author quotes1 from the life of St. Lanfranc, who was arch- bishop of Canterbury in the year 1070, that he caused an hospital to be built there, and fitted up in such a manner, that one part of it was destined for sick men, and the other for sick women. It is probable, or rather almost certain, that this prelate formed the institution here mentioned after the model of those which he had seen in his native country, Italy. After this period similar establishments for the sick are mentioned in various other parts. The first hospitals, at least in general, were built close to cathedrals or monasteries; and the bishops themselves had 1 Antiquitat. 7. c. p. 593.