Clinical and pathological observations in India / by J. Fayrer.

  • Fayrer, Sir Joseph, 1824-1907.
Date:
1873
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Clinical and pathological observations in India / by J. Fayrer. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    to present views, axe the following. It is beyond a doubt tbat aU hospitals, however large or smaU, should be constructed on this principle, that they should be multiples of what is laid down as the tvard unit, viz., a simple chamber, capable of accom- modating any number up to 25 patients, in two rows, with from 1,500 to 2,500 ciibic feet, and 90 to 120 superficial feet for each individual. It is essential, moreover, that these apartments should have cross ventilation, and that the walls be pierced with a sufficient number of windows and doors to admit of free egress and ingress of air. Such wards must be built on well-drained and wholesome ground, and be protected by verandahs in hot, and warming apparatus in cold, climates. Lavatories and latrines should be constructed outside, and the administration should be so arranged, that each ward may receive its due share of care and attention. Every hospital, however large, should be a multiple of this unit, arranged in a variety of ways, V shaped, or echelon shaped, half moon, or star shaped, or in parallel pavilions, according to individual circumstances. AH blocking or crowding together of sick into one apartment, however spacious, must be avoided; and in surgical cases, especially after operation, the more perfect the isolation, the better. For the mode in which the principle has been applied in America, I might refer here to the Eeport already mentioned ; and it may be seen in England, as I believe, in the Herbert Hospital at Woolwich, in the Lariboisiere * in Paris, in the Colonies, and I am happy to say almost everywhere (except in Calcutta) in India. To quote from the writings of a scientific living surgeon, Mr. Spencer Wells :— Not only must communication of wards with each other be avoided, but there must be separate wards containing one, or at most two beds, for patients recently operated on, and in lying-in hospitals for women recently con- fined, before we can hope to reduce mortality from the excessive to the unavoidable rate. * I believe that the Lariboisiere has not proved, so good a hospital as it was expected to be.
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