Report on the state of the lying-in hospitals, in Europe : to the managers of the Preston Retreat, and to the Obstetrical Committee of the College of Physicians / by James Bryan.

  • Bryan, James, 1810-1881.
Date:
1845
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report on the state of the lying-in hospitals, in Europe : to the managers of the Preston Retreat, and to the Obstetrical Committee of the College of Physicians / by James Bryan. 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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    ment and administration of the Preston Retreat, and that you will report to us from time to time, during the progress of your researches. In order for your better guidance in this behalf, we have ap- pended to this letter several queries, to which we solicit your earnest attention; and we request you carefully to record such ob- servations as you may be enabled anywhere to make upon subjects connected with the main objects of your mission : and report them to us in such detail as you may deem conducive to the better infor- mation of the managers, with the intention, however, of making a fuller and more formal or several report upon the close of your researches. As far as conveniently practicable, we shall beg you to procure plans, elevations, and views of the most celebrated Lying-in Hos- pitals—tabular statements and reports, or annual summaries of the results obtained by them. Inquire into the comparative security and comfort of public institutions for Lying-in women, and private accouchments, and attendance at their own lodgings—the tendency of such public establishments to generate and cause the spreading of epidemic and puerperal fever—the modes of treatment adopted in their disorders, and the measures pursued for their eradication from the hospital, and the degree of success attending them. You are to inform yourself as fully as practicable, upon the subject of the expense for the support and relief of the patients—the nature of the resources of the institution, and the modes used in applying the funds to the service of the charity, and generally to communicate to us whatever relates to the economical and medical administration of Lying-in Hospitals. In order to obtain greater facilities for the prosecuting of your researches, we advise you to make yourself known to the ministers of the United States abroad, who, we doubt not, will joyfully lend their concurrence to an object of such great interest to the city of Philadelphia, and afford you opportunities of more perfectly and creditably discharging the duties you have assumed. Hoping that your long and arduous journeys may result in great benefit to the institution in whose behalf you are about to act, and