Cottage hospitals, general, fever and convalescent : their progress, management and work : with an alphabetical list of every cottage hospital at present opened : and chapters on mortuaries, the relative mortality of large and small hospitals, and cottage hospitals in America : many plans and illustrations including a portrait of Albert Napper / by Henry C. Burdett.

  • Burdett Henry C. (Henry Charles), Sir, 1847-1920.
Date:
1880
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Cottage hospitals, general, fever and convalescent : their progress, management and work : with an alphabetical list of every cottage hospital at present opened : and chapters on mortuaries, the relative mortality of large and small hospitals, and cottage hospitals in America : many plans and illustrations including a portrait of Albert Napper / by Henry C. Burdett. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

    138/612 (page 112)
    of young men from a distance, who occupy the posi- tion simply of lodgers, and who, when prostrated by severe illness, are dependent on the variable charity of those with whom they reside. To this latter class especially, the establishment of a cottage hospital is an inestimable boon. What considerations must guide us as to the size of hospital required for a given district ? Most authors on the subject try to lay down a definite rule, based on the ratio of beds to population, but the conclusions at which they arrive are so various as to be practi- cally worthless. Thus one author advises 5 beds for each 1000 inhabitants in an agricultural district, whilst others estimate the ratio as low as i bed for each 1000 population. But it is a mistake to look only at the number of inhabitants. We ought also to take into consideration the vicinity of large works, mines, or factories, the nature of the works, the ventilation and quality of the air in mines (often very varying), the usual number (or perhaps rather the greatest number) of accidents under treatment at any one time, and the liability of those employed to acute diseases from the nature of their work. More- over, should it be decided to take in cases of enteric fever (as for reasons to be presently stated it might be advisable), we ought also to consider some of the sanitary aspects of the neighbourhood, especially the water-supply and the means for the disposal of excreta, both of which in most villages will be found to be simply abominable, while cases of enteric fever always prevail.