.*^V!a^ IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 5< 5^*5^ ^0 /i 1.0 1.1 125 ■^ Uii 12.2 Ul lii ^ tiS. 12.0 i 11.25 i 1.4 1.6 VI Va /a V /A Photographic Sdences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14S80 (716)872-4503 ,k' I, i 1 - ■W CIHM/ICMH Microfiche Series. "W- CIHM/ICMH Collection de microfiches. Canadian institute for Historical IVIicroreproductions / institut Canadian de microreproductions historiquas ., <• i.'.;-^ ^>K^>.^^- It* y .' • .» '-^' | OF THE . ^ . ^ . -» , r ' - * ' T Lx-*' -- */ "^ 'ov, k^ ^4- * .< fv. , i ' < -o >- I = '-' -^ pRmrfeD Aft TH« OtFICE OB^THB "MiKAMK'HI AdVANCK^' '.> -- r b: .% . ,4. i: I, r A 5G2. •X 1. ^ > 1 r' ~ "^ ' .-''«-.' 1 ,,„ ^'j' ?-^ " ^ ' . i. ■ *-^ — ^ ' £ I fe^ ' " ^< 'i^ '-^ >• 'i-' * .- - ^. -^ -''-* \ * "^ ;>"^i ^- Xf r Jv n >•-- •^. ^ ^x t^6 . -vs. S'**' ^^^ C^c S. ^ M - ' t.'*^.^,. ■^ .. ''. ^v ,(*>< sL'- 'i A - c- i^c , ►» /^ 7H^ J. >.C I- v^ ".. r^ ■A W^^V -^ ^ ' %-> J V, >; 4-^' ■\ *■ ^ ,t^ .r^ ..V i^w.ii'' ^. ^. f.- -**• -J« _ t ac *^ ' ^S- r r _ >/^^^-..- ■r r •;?' > -rt-"^ -- ^^ s 1 ^ - *«^»__ -^r. .^ i -sf .>-'. '^. . -^i -Jf, -•S ,v. rvj '^=5^*' ( % •5* I 'A' :■?:■■ ''-r^'->^. -;■ - - - - -C". ■ '*--i^-J • >■ ■', riN/ .;. ^^^>- W^^^^:^- ^1 •-> Tit, -*.-^^ - '^-W?-^' * rk y..,'>! •"■■ >v .^ ■■■«V Within the Hospital Walls. A MATTER-OF-FACT NARRATI VE. (B^ a Special Commissioner of the Lancet) Most Londoners are familiar with the outside char- acteristics of certain spacious three storied buildings to be found in most of the crowded districts of the metropolis. With but an exception or two^ they lay claim to no architectural beauty, and attract attention more generally by their brooding ugliness. Most of them were built at a time when architec- tural taste had temporarily disappeared from this island; and the addition of wings, out-buildings, and unnatural excrescences, to meet the wishes of modem sanitary science, invariably robbed them of the little beauty they started with. Then, as often as not, scantiness of funds has prevented the archi- tect from stepping an inch beyond the limits of strict utility. Besides, having started plain or ugly, and maintained the traditions up to modern times, it has not been easy for the governing bodies of the day to seriously improve the outside appear- ance of their institutions. To add a handsome wing to a blackened and weather-frayed structure is, by the contrast occasioned, to increase rather than to diminish the prevailing dreaiiness. Moreover, it has always been, and stUl is, a principle with gov- ernors that funds available for architectural decora- M V ^ <• tion are better expended in ministering: to the com- fort of patientH, and curing them inside the build- ing, than in offering up outside fresh victims in the shape of polished gratiite and carved stone-work to that scai ifying demon of our metropolitan streets — London soot. The heavy awkwardness of the pile is rendered more oppressive by the usual absence of blind and curtain, to soften the oppressive blackness of ther windows. Occasionally the gloominess ot the winaow is even enhanced by the lower panes being frosted, and by the black upper panes gaping open for purposes of ventilation m a chilly, dismal man- ner. No matter how grim and devoid of features to arrest the fancy the facade may be, the inscription "Supported by Voluntary Contributions" is, never- the-less, religiously kept clean and distinct. But the generality of n^ankind confine their gaze Qiore to the earth than to heaven ; and as in most cases this invocation to subscribe might be above the range of sight, the inscription is commonly repeated on the do'>rsand the palings, accompanied by gap- ing money-boxes, and sometimes a stating fervent appeal for aid. TEOOPING TO THE HOSPITAL. Every morning thy streets converging upon these buildings are thronged by the "lame, the halt, and the blind." Black being the raiment of respec- tability among: the lower middle classes, ani those who gain their livelihood by working at various trades, this color is the prevailing hue ofthe"out- , patient" pilgrims. Light colors betoken a levity out of place in the waiting-rooms of a general hos- pital, and are only donned by the foolish and friv- olous, or by those unfortunates who 'went in" for gay apparel in the hour of health and good pay, and who have no other clothes to come in. These, 8 however, try to conform to decency by bringing their bottles and gallipots in black bags, or by adopting a resDQctable mournfuiness of behaviour. Thus the stranger, finding himself in the vicinity of a great ho^ital at certain hours of the morning, carries away a«gen.eral impression of black clothes and white bandages, green bottles protruding from black bags, and crutches, eye-shades, and arms in * slings, which is not at all calculated to inspire him with a vigorous appetite for luncheon. Should he travel third class on certain suburban lines, he will find that there are trains in the morning known as "hospital trains," when the larger proportion of the occupants of the third class carriages are out- patients proceeding to town, who not only create a peculiar out-patient atmosphere of their own in the compartment they may be travelling in, but, being often known to one another, convert the said com- partment into a sort of forum for the lugubrious discussion of diseases and the ills incidental to man. WHAT THE HOSPITAL IS SUPPOSED TO BE LIKE Thus, everything tends to favor the popular im- pression that the hospital is a very dismal in-titu- tion, hardly better than a prison; and few, we -m- agine, fay a first visit to one without making up their minds to be affected with a night-mare of sorrow and sufiering for days to come. As for tak- ing any inlierest in the hospital, to say nothing of feelings of pride, what average Englishman is there , who considers himself under an obligation to con- cern himself in the least about it while they were in good health? Yet, as we shall directly show, a general hospitaj in our great metropolis is not merely an institution founded by the charitable rich for the sufiering poor, and, therefore, on purely moral and humanitarian grounds to be commended, 4 but is vitally associated with the personal well be- ing of every Londoner, no matter to what grade of society he may belong or how sound may be his health. Without exaggerating the case in any re- spect, it may be said that there is no individual who is not already indebted to the hospital, although he may have never personally applied for relief, and it will not be difficult in a brief account of life in a,-^ typical general hospital to demonstrate to the healthiest and most selfish Londoner the immense benefits conferred on him, as well as upon every- body else, by our metropolitan institutions for the alleviation of the sick. HOW DYER, THE MECHANIC, CAME TO ENTER THE HOSPITAL. It is not a twelvemonth ago that a mechanic was admitted into che General Hospital suffering from a punctured eyeball. He had been employed at the Dudgeon Engineering Works on the Thames, and was within one hour of taking his discharge, when, in striking almost a final blow as his last piece of work, a bit of metal flew up and entered the eye. A few months previously the works had passed into the hands of a limited liability company, and whatever kindly feeling had at one time existed between master and man had disappeared under the iiew regime. The business was placed "on an im- proved footing," which m^^ant a general reorganiza- tion and suppression of certain branches that did not pay, accompanied by a turn out of many of the old hands without any reference to the claims they had on the owners by reason of long and faithful service. Among those discharged was this hard- working mechanic, named Dyer, who had been em- ployed most of his working life in the place, and whp was of acknowledged respectability. Sickness THE in his large family at differ nt times, aud troubles occasioned through trying to buy his house from a bogus building society, had brought bim down to the level of his actual wages and he had but a poor prospect before him, when on boing helped to the nearest doctor's the cashier's clerk put his last pay into his pocket. The man was recommended to go the next morning "to the hospital." THE HOSPITAL IS AT.WAYS READY FOTl YOU. Patients suffering from ordinary ailments or dis- eases commonly enter a general hosfutal through the "out-patient" department. Furnished with a governor's letiter, which is always obtained readily enough, anybody can secure the advice of the phy- sicians and surgeon on duty for the dav, and if they decide that his or lier illness is of sucn a character as to require treatment inside the hospital, the pati- ent can enter at once, providing there be a vacant bed. Kntisance may be also obtained on the special recommendation of the physicians and surgeons; but there is one essential difference between medi- cal and surgical cases, between illness and hurts, that persons suffering From the latter can claim at- tention at any time. The hospital door is always open to accidents. Nl^syht and day, Sunday and week-day, the porter stands as the door ready to pass in and conduct to the house-surgeon anyone appearing with an accidental wound; and no matter how trivial the injury may be, and without any re- ference to the dress of the applicant, surgical atten- tion is immediately given, and no demand pressed for a letter of recommendation or for payment. A general hospital makes no distinction between the thriftless and the thrifty in the hour of need. Hour after hour, day after day, year after year, it stands, ready to bestow the best medical advice aud the kindliest compassion on 'all who may cvoh8 its thres* hold. A man may pass his whole lifetime, and never think once seiiously about the hospital, or be- stow a sixpence upon it. Yet all this while the door has remained open night and day ready to receive him should bodily harm ever befall him, and the benevolence of the n)')to thoughtful has kept in motion the machinery' of medical talent and nursing skill, in spite of inadequate funds and lagging con- tributions. IS YOUR CASE LIKE DYER's ? Tom Dver, the mechanic, confessed to himself, as he was jolted along in a cab to the General Hospital, that his contributions to the Hospital Sunday Fund had never gone beyond a copper or two, and not even that when he happened to stay away from church on the annual anniversary ; but he thought he was not quite so bad as Jack Brown, who made it a joke that on Hospital Saturday he always rush- ed to a "pub" the moment be knocked off work, and stayed in the bar till dark, to avoid the solicitations of street collectors on fiis wav home. Sometimes Brown got drunk before dark, and went home reel- ing, in which case he admitted that he might have given something to the Hospital Saturday people "unbeknown to himself," but he would take his oath he never had while sober. No such levitj as this rested upon the conscience of Dyer, nor, in fact, did his reproaches go very deep, as he had a vague imr; pressiou that the hospitals were more or less richly endowed by the wealthy classes, or were kept going by their annual contributions. He wished at one moment he had given a silver threepenny-piece at the collections instead of a copper ; and then he thought that the Hospital Sunday collection taking place only once a year, he might have spared a shil- linff ; but he was really too ill to go far into the pros and conB of the subject. For the moment his eye was more sensitive than his conscience. ^ ARRIVAL AT THE HOSPITAL. Arrived at the hospital, one of the porters assist- ed him to alight and conducted him into the house- surgeon's receivinur room. At all General Hospitals, in proportion to their size and wants, there are a number of house-surgeons and house-physicians, who take it in rotation night and day to receive and treat any cases admitted requiring immediate atten- tion. In the General Hospital* tnero weie five re- sident house-physicians and five resident house-sur- geons, besides a couple of resident dressers. Being situated in the heart of a crowded manufacturing district, its staff was necensarily large. The house- surgeon had just disposed of a sprained wrist case as Dyer entered the room — a large, warm, and well ventilated apartment, with a lavatory in one corner, eases of surgical instruments on the walls, tin boxes containing bandages and antiseptic dressings on the side tables, and a general litter of bottles of drugs and surgical appliances; everything handy and ready for use, and presided over by the house-sur- geon, middle-aged, prompt, energetic, and swift in *For the sake of giving greator weii(ht to the facts in thia narrative, the whole of the atatiatics of the Oeneral Hospital are taken from the latest data obtainable at the London Hospi- tal, Whiteohapel, the largest of the metropolitan hospitals, hav> ing over 700 beds. To have adopted fancy figures, worked oat from the data of all the hospitaia. would have been to vitiate the value of the statistios; hence, without any intention of invidi- ously treating the rest, the London Hospital has been selected, being the largest, as the one to furnish statistics, while the general features of the General Hospital are taken from all the principal hospitals, strict attention being paid to keepiag the description well within the mark, and rendering it a practical matter-of-fact aco«unt« rather than a picture of the ideal. 8 . decision ; the dresser, a budding student, assiduous and helpful ; g,nd a nurse, hovering quietly about, and anticipating every wibh of the surgeon in pre- paring the patient for examination ; retiring after- wards to* the back-grourjd to put in their places or clean any things used in dealing with previous patients, at the same time keeping on the qui vive to render fresh aid if necessary. "A severe punctur- ed wound," said the house-surgeon, after examining the eye and eliciting particulars of the accident. "You will require immediate treatment as an in- patient, and will be ta-ken to the Ophthalmic ward at once." DYKR EXAMINED BY THE DOCTOR. The well-known Ophthalmic surgeon and profes- sor of Ophthalmic medicine and surgery was going his rounds when D3'er entered the ward, and had him conveyed to a small darkened chamber, where at the close of a prolonged inspection he warned hiiri that it would be necessary to remove the eye. "A.11 the beds in the Eye ward are full, and you can- not be accommodated there; h\it they are taking on in the Ro«lerick ward below, and as you will be out by the end of a week, we can put you among the surgical cases. Don't distress yourself about the eye; the other is sound and healthy,-and you will be able to get on with only one eye as well as Nelson." Applying something to relieve the pain, he sent him into the Eye ward, telling him that he had better remain there for the present. The Eye ward of the General Hospital was not a "bandaged" one, but remai'kably cheerful. It contained thirty beds, disposed in two rows, one row subdivided by the fire-place, the other b^' a large table decorated with flowers in vases or growing in pots, which took off one's attention from the dressing tins placed upon 6 \ it. The dark ^reen walls were relieved by colored pictures from the Graphi'i and Illustrated London News, and the sweet singing of a linnet pre\ ented the patients from being depresoed by the monotony of sullen silence. Only a few of the patients were in bed. The rest were sitting or standing about, discussing the contents of a newspaper which a patient with eyes nearly cured was reading aloud to a group. Near the fire, two lads, each with an ey(\ bandaged, were playing chess. AMUSING THEMSELVES IN THE EYE WARD. A nurse conducted Dyer to a seat near a win- dow overlooking a crowded «treet, and next to a man lying on a bed with boi^h eyes shaded. Ask- ing Dyer what he was suffering from, he went on to talk about his own case, saying that he had been in the ward for a month owing to injuries received during an accidental explosion ot gunpowder. For three weeks of this time both eyes had been ban- daged, and he said that he should have been tor- mented out of his life by anxiety and "nothing to do," but for the amusement he derived and impart- ed to one or two others by keeping hiii mind em- ployed with a celebrated system of memory. Hav- ing recently learnt it, he wa^ able to repeat in rotation, after another patient had described all the articles in the room, the whole at a stroke; then he recited page after paiife of the books he heard being read, and by these and other exploits made himself quite a hero. He astonished Dyer by getting him to repeat the names of all the men and foremen at Dudgeon's he could remember. •'When I'd done." related Dyer, describing the event afterwards, "he said, "Now start again and repeat the lot in the same order." Of conrse f couldn't, for I didn't know whether I'd put Brown first or Robinson, upoii \ 10 which I'm blest if he didn't gabble the whole lot off in a string, just as I'd say them, though there were more than two hundred, and Td only said their name> once.' THE RODEBKJK WARD. About 6 o'clock Dyer was conducted below to the Roderick ward on the lower floor, and was in- formed that a bed would be at his disposal there till he left The ward was double the size of the one he had quitted, and held in all sixty beds, sepa- rated into two sets of thirty apiece by a broad lobby, containing the kitchen, scullery, dispensary, lavatory, and other offices of the ward, which vir- tually rendered it two wards of equal dimensions, since, although the gangway ran- straight through it from one end to tlie other without door or parti- tion, the lobby compressed it a little and narrowed the view from each sectioti. The bare boards o*"' the floor v/ere as white and as clean as any trencher in olden times, and were relieved in colors by the red counteipanea on the unvallanced beds.of which there weie fourteen on the fireplace side and fifteen on the other. At the back of each bed were blue cotton curtains, so suspended on a half hoop bar as to move easily round and p^rtl> enclos'i the bed, affording the patient privacy, if needed, arid enabling him to screen himself from the rest of the wtird if undesir- ous of looking out upon the little world of suffer- ing. Snpended fiom this bar, also, was a sheet of blue paper, foolscap size, containing the name of the disease ot the patient below, and particulars as to his treatment and diet. Behind the bed the butf- coloied wall was adorned by rows of beautiful j^a-avings and chromo-lithographs, and at the end of Dyer's section there was a magnificent oil-painting, "Joseph revealing himself to his brethren," the mu- 11 nificent gift of a benevolent R. A.. Beneath this a set of .suspending shelves contained a librar\ of forty vohimes, th*^ lowe-t shelf partly hidden by a number of beautiful fern on a table. A little to the side, singing in the window, was a mnle canary, and not far from the warbler was an aquarium full of goldfish, placed in !i window recess. Between As soon as he had recovered, a little nourishment was given to Dyer, and having received the con» gratulations of the man with shaded eyes, who, to V 17 please him, recited afresh the names of the two hun- dred men at Dudgeon's, he was conveyed again be- "low to the Roderick ward. The pain arising from the wounded eye had departed with it, and, beyond a slight feeling of soreness, there was nothing now to trouble him At the recommendation of Sister Agatha he had a nap in the bed, and awoke about mid-day in a tolerable mood for his dinnet. This was served round to each patient by the probation- ers and nurses, who flitted right and left from the lobby, and soon supplied each sufferer with his or- dinary allowance of roast meat, vegetables, and milk pudding, together with such stimulants as had been specially onlered by the doctor. The ordinary diet was vaiied by fish, chops and steaks, mutton-broth or beef -tea, and other articles ; but in every case it was served up hot and clean, and in a manner to please the most fastidious invalid. After dinner Dyer lay on his bed for hours in that happy, peace- ful condition which commonly follows a severe operation if the patient knows that the whole of the worst is behind him, and that in front lies swift and certain recovery. Peace after pain— is there any other peace so beatific as this? Dyer felt as though he had a fresh lease of happy life confer- red upon him, and was encouraged to hope that his speedy recovery might be quickly followed by fresh employment. If Nelson had got on with only ore eye, why might not he ? At any rate, the wounded eye would trouble him no longer, and in two or tnree days he would be discharged from the wnrd, and in the meanwhile it was very pleasant to lie there on his back, lazily watching what was going on. At the worst, the bright, sunny ward -w as a pleasant contrast to the black and gloomy worusliop at Dudgeon's. 18 THK DEATH OP THE BIRD FANCIER. Amon^' the other things, he noticed in the after- noon a constant movement towards the bird fan- cier's bed at the remote end of the ward. In the morning a piece of felting had been unrolled along the length of the passage-way between the beds, to deaden the sound •f the footsteps on the bare white floor. The house-surgeon looked in several times; Sister Agatha kept her gaze constantly in the direction of the bed. As the day wore on, and the sun shone brightly into the ward, the flowers seemed to giow fresher and more beautiful, the pictures on the wall appeared full of animation — one almost expected to hear the British soldiers at Quatre Bras above Dyer's bed shout at the rushing enemy — while the mule canary pipe 1 its song shril- ly. Thinking the noise might worry the sufferer, Sister Agatha ordered it to be removed to nnother ward, but a feeble sign from the bed arrested the departure of the songster, and, apparently by re- quest, the cage was placed on a locker alongside the bed, from which a hand was presently extended caressingly. Later on the nurse enfolded the bed with a couple of crimson screens, behind which afterwards disappeared the Chaplain and a rough- headed middle-aged man in a coarse grey tweel suit, who followed the former awkwardly, with a subdued manner evidently foreign to his habitual bearing. "It's the bird fancier who was brought in last week^ — run over by a van," said a probationer to Dyer, in reply to an inquiry he put while she was administering to him his medicine. "He is not so well to-day, and his mate is visiting hioQ." Not so well to-day" is a quiet hospital way of saying that a patient is sinking. "mmm-^... 19 . SISTER AGATHA SINGS "ROCK OF AGES." Tea-time came and pa8sc by Oiack standing >t 8im]j>ly >ectabUity aide red de , hospital, a hospital lior, tliey jupervised bo prance it-hi ivted- ghh color- em to find irb by the )ility cut- , and 1« is the friends ng that it m many a d for the and ani- rs, and for disease or huitand tliu mode oT life in tho hospital. Here and there a bed nwiy bo passf^d, silent and un visit- ed. Perhaps the ptuiont has no ^friends ; perhups they arc too poor to visit the sufferer )ften. In some cases a patient will, it of a cheerful disposi- tion, extract amusement from watching other pati- ei iV friends, some of wh(mi, if they have been fre- nnt visitors at tho ward may also, out of good na- lai i and desire to cheer, come and pass a word or two. Other patients, rendered peevish by Dain, and naturally of a lachrymose disposition, openly dis- play their disappointment at being left deserted and solitary amidst so much animation ; and it i^ here that a sister or a nurse, flitting about a ward, may render the service of a good angel in pausing for a few minutes to cheer the sufferer by a timely chat. VISITING THE UNVISITED. Tn some of our London ho.spitals there is a touch- ing tradition of a great-hearted man, who used to devote his time to visiting the unvisited patients. Unostentatiously he passed through the wards, t nd whenever he saw a solitary patient who seemed sad and forlorn he would sit down and talk till he had brightened up the suffei-er ; and then, leaving a newspaper, or a magazine, or a book behind to con- tinue his cheering influence after he was gone, h^ would pass on to some one idee in want of consola- tion. He never "talked religion," although his con- versation showed him to possess deep spiritual feel- ing, and he never gave away tracts \ his equipment consisting cf a kind tongue and a bundle of Sunday [magazines, or, if on week-days, some evening news- )apers, together with a reserve of a few new books, [which he carried in his pockets. In many of the iospitals even his name was unknown. He called 22 himself, jokingly, Mr. Jones, or Smith, or Rohinson, when requested to give a name, and repressed furth- er inquiries by a trifling contribution io the hospi- tal funds. Who he really was, and -where he came from, remained unknown to the end. The officials he rarely talked to if he could avoid it, and as soon as his mission was understood they allowed him to roam through the wards unmolested. For nearly two years his visits regularly lasted, and then sud- denly ceased, probably through the death of this kind-hearted, unassuming Samaritan. His mission died with him, but may it not have been moi'e glorious while it la«»ted than many a press-puffed pretentious piece of charity ? A DEPUTATION FROM DUDGEON'S. Dyer was not among the unlucky ones. He ha d not only his wife and daughter to cheer him, but also that good-for-nothing Jack Brown, who, with another man and a foreman, appeared as delegates from Dudgeon's to visit him on behalf of his fellow- workmen. These rough and sturdy fellows, who shouted lustily enough their workshop jokes, and had made their voices heard at many a political meeting at Poplar, fidgeted about by the bedside and kept talking about subjects difi^erent from that they had come expressly about, until Mrs. Dyer, after many hints and nudges, goaded Jack Brown into saying, "Well, Dyer, old chap, we come to tell you—." Then suddenly stopping, he said, "Here, missis, you must tell him the rest." Stooping to kiss him, his wife ejaculated tearfully that the day before, hearing he had lost his eye, the men at the works had started a subscription, which had result- ed in £9 12s. -id. bein^ collected on his behalf. "It is not much," said the foreman, apologetically, "but it will keep your mind easy for a few weeks, and 28 then something else may turn up to help you along." PRESENTS FOR THE WARDS. Altei a little talk the men began admiring the ward. "Roderic" kwas quite brilliant that after- i.oon. Most of the visitors had brought bunches of flowers, and several of them flowers in pots. The gold fish maintained a constant chase after one another in the aquarium, stimulated by the foun- tain playing blithely overhead, while the mule canary trilled in the corner, provoking many a glance of admiration from the patients* friends. "If I had thought they'd been acceptable," said the foreman, "I would have invested in a flower or two for the ward. Yesterday, outside Dudgeon's gate they were selling big flowering geraniums to the men at fourpenoe a pot.and some fuchsias, like a tree — as much as you could carry home — for nine- pence or a shilling. One of those would have looked Well in the ward, if one had known it." "If one ha 1 known it " repeated the Chaplain, who, in pass- ing through "Roderick," had seen the men casting a iiriiring glances along the ward and had overheard the words of the foreman. "You see now how much good remains undone through ignorance. The hospital is alwa>s thinking of you, and prepar- ing for you; you maj^e struck down at any mo- ment and be brought here Now, how olten do you think, in return, of the hospital." GOOD ADVICE FOR EVERYONE. "To tell the truth,*' said the foreman, "I've never thought about it at all. I hope I never may have to attend one." "I hope so too," rejoined the chap- lain," for your sake; but you're not sure. An acci- dent occurs only now and again, you may say, but the number soon mounts up. At this hospital alone Ri ; I 24 we dealt with over 8,000 last year. Hero are the figures — 1,572 fractures, 3,491 wounds, 1,126 con- tusions, 185 sprains, 171 dislocations, 761 burns and scalds, 94 cases of hernia, 34 dog bites, 107 cases of hemorrhage, 72 cases of retention, 34 of foreign bodies in the throat, &c., 860 cases of inflammation from injuries, and about 200 various, making a total of 8,707 Of that number, 2000, all but 8 were brought into the hospiUl, and provided with the same comfort and care as youi friend lying there. Is not that a tremendous numoer f < r a single hospital? Yet that is the way the hospitals keep working for you thioughout the year in every district in London— not all to the same extent as this, but invariably working to the full streU h of their power." £50,000 A YEAR TO MAKE UP.- "It must cost somethint^ to keep them all going," said the foreman. "Yes, and being mainly depen- dent on voluntry subscriptions, the hospitals have a hard struggle to rub along. Our fixed ii come is only £15,000 a year, and we have to make up near- ly £50,000 a year." "I suppose you get a good many legacies, sir," observed the foreman. "Not so many as the wealth of London might lead you to think; but you must know that it is not tlie £100 bequests that keep a hospitdT going — it is the six- pences, the shillings, and the half-crowus of the gen- eral public, together with the guineas of annual subscribers, b'rom you who toil we look f' r an oc- casional subscription, not as a matter of charity, but out of common fairness. When yon take a ticket for a long journey, the railway clerk often says to you, "Will you insure yourself rgainst ac- cidents? For a penny or twopence you can insure so much a week in the event of being huit.' Now, 26 each in-patient costs, on an average, nearly 3s. 9d. a day, or 26s. a week, including the maintenance of the hospital. We're spending at that rate on your friend lying there, and wo may be spending it on you to-moiTow or some future time. You are ready enough to spend twopence to insiire the re- ceipt of a few sbillings a week in going on a singly long journey. Now, here is a sum of 26s. a week which the hospital stands committed to spend on you if you are brought into its wards injured or helpless. Don't you think, therefore, that in com- mon fairness you ought to pay something in the shape of insurance money in return? A shilling a year on Hospital Sunday, is surely not too much for every working man te subscribe to Iteep up hospitals which are ready to spend nearly j6*70 a year to cure him if he is brought into their wards injured or ilL Why, my good friends if you were on a platform, and a man fell under the carriages and was terribly mangletl and another man, burst- ing through the crowd as they bore him away, were to exclaim, "Here is a purse with £20; spend all on him to cure him; and if he wants more, there is a blank check for the remainder." If a man did that, the crowd would cheer him out of the station. Yet the hospital is doing that every day, and instead of cheering, the public, with sighs, fill up the bags on Hospital Sunday with coppers and threepenny-pieces. Isn't that so? The hospital gives ungrudging aid all the year round — 366 days; the public find it hard to give grudgingly only once — on Hospital Sunday." NOT CHARITY, BUT SELF-INTEREST. Observing that the group looked a little abashed, the chaplain placed his hand good-hupaoredly on the fore^Dan's shoulder, and exclaimed, "Well, if I go on i 26 at this rate, 5'ou will complain that I am preaching a sermon, You came here to cheer np your friend, not t*^ he lectured ; so don't let me spoil your chat any further. But remember this, when you are asked to subscribe to the Hospital Sunday Fund, don't say to yourself, "I am giving a shilling out of charity/ but rather, *I am giving a shilling to en- sure that, if 1 get injured during the year, I shall find awaiting me a well-organised hospital, a com- fortable ward, a soft bed, the kindest of nurses and doctors, and a managing staff determined to be- grudge no expense, and to do the utmost in their power to make a whole man of me again, and re- store me in good health to my family.' That's the view I want you to take of it — not charity, but self-interest, and common fairness between man and man. Good-bye!" Shaking hands with them, he passed on, but returned before he went many steps, and said to the foreman "That was a very kind idea of yours, wishing to bring a big fuchsia to the hospital. Now, some of these days, when you can spare a nice potted flower from your gar- den, and are passing this way, it would be in this case charity, not self-interest, to leave it at the lodge, addressed to the house-governor, to be placed in one of the wards. Look how bright the kind- ness of people has made this ward; the humblest can help, with a picture or a flower, to keep it bright and cheerful for our sufterers." " A.y, ay, sir, I'll bring a beauty next Sunday,'' exclaimed the foreman earnestly. "Tom won't be here, then," said Mrs. Dyer, as the chaplain walked away. "He's to be out on Tuesday or Wednesday." 'Then I tell you what, old man," declared the foreman, addressing Tom Dyer, 'you and I will come togeth- er if the missis will let us, and we'll put on the il! Hi Hi) tf 27 table a couple of big fuchsias that will make it look like a flower-show." HE wasn't in "LLOYD'S." As the Chaplaiu proceeded aloDg th* ward, a patient in one of the beds angrily tore a newspaper in halves and threw it on the floor. Picking it up he said to the man, "You seem annoyed at some thing in this paper?" "No, sir, it's not what's in it but what isn't in it that annoys me. I fell from a scaffold forty feet yesterday and broke a leg, and they haven't put it in "yesterday's summary," yet they've been and gone and put in another man who only fell twenty feet and only broke his col- lar bone. I've taken in Lloyd's regular every Sun- dayf or twenty years. Do you think that's fair?' "Well, I don't know," replied the Chaplain, good- humoredly, "but I don't think the paper is to blame. If you'll let me have it, I'll patch it and send it back to the ward to-morrow— the other patients might like to read it. Good afternoon — I see I am wanted at the end." Lloyd's publishes every Sunday a column of horrors, detailing the accidents of the day before. It is no I very agree- able reading, but the masses like it, and when a regular reader gets injured on Saturday he is often, if sufficiently recovered, as impatient to see if his name is in 'yesterday ,s summary' as a fashionable lady is to see the notice of her party or her grand dinner in the columns of the Morning Post. SMUGGLING BRANDY INTO THE WAED. The reason the Chaplain hurried away was be- cause his roving eye had detected a visitor surrep- titiously slipping a bottle under the counterpane of a bed at the end of the ward. The introduction of liquor into the wards of a hospital is strictly pro- hibited, and in the event of detection the visitor is ; 2fi immediately expelled, and the repetition of the of- fence leads to the expulsion of the patient if in a removable condition. In spit© of this necessary rigor, patients' friends, from a mistaken feeling of kindness, persist in trying to evade the regulation, and it was to prevent any trouble occurring that the Chaplain himself took the present case in hand. Walking carelessly up to the bed, and placing him- self between the visitor and the patient, he made a few common-place remarks, and then, passing his hand casually across the counterpane a^ if to smooth it, exposed one end of the Hask to the dis- comfited couple. Covering it over again, he said to the patient's friend, "What is it — brandy or whiskey?" "Brandy,.!—." A DONATION IN KIND. "Quite so, quite so ; I don't want any explana- tion," interposed the Chaplain, fearing the man's excuses might result in a strain on the truth. * It was kindly feeling that made you bring that into this place and there need be no disguise about the matter. The hospital prefers, if possible, to receive donations in cash, but it does not object to presents in kind ; and if you will, as T know you will, pre- sent the flask of brandy to the Sister, she will be very glad to add it to the stores of the hospital. This, I suppose," removing the flask from its place and measuring its contents with a xjritical look, "cost a shilling. Now, tell me, why it is that peo- ple like you hesitate to give a shilling to hospitals once a year, and yet do not mind spending a shil- ling on a present of this kind when you visit a patient ?" CONVERTING aN EVIL-DOER INTO A BENEFACTOR. Beckoning to Sister Agatha as she parsed, he pUced the flask in her hands, and said, "this kind hSsSilMirtiiKiitetfi^tia 29 3, to receive perfion did not know what to bring to cheer hia comrade in . bed, and made a desperate guess at brandy, which is supplied by the hospital. He hopes you will kindly look on it as a donation, and I tnink f am correct in suggesting that if he want- ed to bring anything another time, you would be very glad of an illustrated paper, or a book, or a set of draughts, to cheer up his friend during his stay in this place." "Most certainly," replied Sis- ter Agatha, with a smile. "Many thanks for this " A.nd as she went off to her room with the confiscat- ed fiask. the Chaplain continued with a pleasant smile, "It is so easy to impart pleasure with a little thoughtfulnesB. Now your shilling, handed to the Sister, would have kept your friend regularJ^> sup- plied with the daily paper for a fortnight and when he had finished with it every day, it would have given pleasure in the afternoon and evening to the other patients in the ward. How much more plea- sure that would have been than a few nips of brandy, which might have thrown your friend back, and perhaps killed him. But never mind, you meant well, and if you will take my advice, next time you want to cheier a friend in hospital consult a Sister, and you will be astonished at her wojiderful knowledge of the ways to do it, at a far [less cost than your flask of brandy." Having thu«s >ut them at their ease, the Chaplain nodded a [good-humored farewell, and quitted the ward THE EMPTY BED IS FILLED. Dyer fell asleep directly after supper, and he did snot break clear of the doze until Jnidnight. He then observed, while tossing about trying to get sleep again, the vacant bed by his side had at last found an occupant. Throughout the night the new-comer was constantly visited by the nurse on 80 duty, and during the later inspections, towards the morning, Dyer overheard her say to a piobationer that the sleeping man had met with an accident on the Underground Railway the night before, having slipped between the train and the platform while alighting from the carriage, and sustained a frac- ture of the arm and some bruises. One of the latter had evidendly been accompanied by a laceration or a cut as the patient's right cheek was striped with a piece of plaster. Twisting himself round, in order to bring his remaining eye to bear more completely on his neighbor, Dyer started stared, and ejaculat- ed involuntarily, "Why I'm blest il it isn't the old governor !" "Who ?" demanded the nurse. "What's his name f exclaimed Dyer, excitedly, in reply. "Dudgeon," answered the nurse examining the in- valid's passport, suspended over his head. DIVES IN THE RODERICK WARD. "I thought I wasn't mistaken," that's my old master — Dudgeon — who used to own Dudgeon's Works and sold it to a company What's he doing here ? He was in Italy when we heard from him last. Well, I am blest, to think—" "Hush !" inter- posed the nurse ; "you will wake him if you talk too loud. Just tell me quietly who he is, and we'll communicate with his friends. Wo knew he was a gentleman by his clothing when he was brought here last night, but he had no card-case in his poc-^ ket and we took his name from his linen." After that you may besuie Dyer had very little sleep. It was a revelation to him to find that the rich found their way into hospitals as well as the poor. "I thought they only subscribed to them for us chaps," he said to hluiself : "but it seems that they want the hospital at times as much as wo do " Then he tried to imagine what Dudgeon would say and. wmm. 31 do when he woke up, and found himself lying in bed a few yards from one of his old workmen, and whether the liveried butler and footmen would be tallowed to come and wait upon him in the ward, and what the hospital generally would do when it I found that it had such a distinguished man as Dud- Igeon with in its walls. "Why, if he liked," whisper- led Dyer to the nui-se, "he could keep this whole [place going himself, and still have enough a year to [live on in Slortgramit Square !" «. NEARLY DECAPITATED ON THK RAILWAY. When Sister Agatha put away the prayer-book [after morning prayers, on the libi'ary shelf, along- jside "King Solomon's Mines'' and "Ti casure Island" and returned in the direction of her room, Diidgoon beckoned to her, and said, "How very nice! Kindly thank the nurses who took charge of nie last night; and accept my own thanks for the hymn you sang so sweetly. More than anyone ,1 should be grate- ful this morning for my mai-vellous escape last night." "Was it so remarkable as that?" asked Sister Agatha. "Quite astonishing. I thought the train had stopped; and fell as I alighted, first on the platform then between a couple of carriages. Somehow my head got on the line and the wheel rolled on till it pinned the nape to the metal; then it stopped; an inch more and I must have been de- capitated. As it was I was jammed so tight be- tween the wheel and the rail that they had some trouble in getting my head out. The suspense was awful, and I just remember being placed on the platform, and then must have become insensible, for my arm was being put up in splint by your surgeon when I came to again." "God was very mercifull" "And man merciful too; for whec I was brought here everything was lying ready to receive 8fi me, and I wiis examined, mended and put to bed a8 promptly and with as much kindness and ccmsid- eration as my own family could have shown me. I presume you treat all alike in this Hospital— the patients in this ward were all treated like me?" "All of them. In the General Hospital no differ- ence between rich and poor; and the coalheaver who is brought crushed and bleeding is treated just the same as any gentleman knocked down by a cab. We .make no difference between master and man; but of that you can judgo for yourself. In the next bed is one of your own workmen, who has been here several days. He will be the best authority in this matter. But you had better re- main quiet until the suigeon comes round, and I would advise no more talking till then. Is there anything I C8.n do for you in the meantime?" "Nothing except to roquest the House-Governor to pay me a visit at his convenience." ARE WE NOT ALL LIKE DUDGEON? When the House-Governor came up later, Dud- geon said to him, *'I am much obliged to you for your kindness in receiving me here last night, and putting this left arm of mine into gear. I certainly never thought I should some day spend a night in a hospital. That's an Irish way of putting it, but you know what I mean." "Most people say the" same thing, but none the less I hope you are not disenchanted." "Disenchanted! My dear sir, it would have been shocking ingratitude to find fault with anything in this place, especially as I can't remember ever contributing anything to its funds Of course, that omission will have to be rectified now — we can talk about that to-morrow. What I want you to be so good to do at present is, to send a messenger to 16, Mortgramit Square, and tell my 88 >alet to come here. Manage it so that no alarm is createil, and nobody else comes with him. My wife and family do not arrive home until to-morrow night; and there ia no need of acquainting anyone else with the accident." "Except that it is in the Morning Post this morning, and other daily papers." * "Confound the Morning Fost Who put it m?" "I don't know; reporters are always prowl- ing about, and picking up news." "Well, you'll have to bear the brunt. I am not goinnf to see any- one to-doy or to-morrow" till I go home, so you must send them away. "People are hard to please," said Sister Agatha smilingf. "Here, yesterday, in the ward, a patient vowed he wouldn't take in Lloyd's any more, because his accident wasn't re- ported; and to-day another vows he won't take in the Post any more, because his accident is reported. Et must be rather difficult for the Press to please everybody." They all laughed at this, and Dudgeon as good-humoredly as the rest. Observing then that J)yer wa? dressing, the surgeon having advised him to get up, I >udgeon asked Sister Agatha to tell him to come to him. MASTER AND MAN. '•'Well, my man," commenced Dudgeon, "your face is familiar to me. Where were you employed in my works?" "In the fitting shop; my father, John Dyer, was there as leading hand, twenty years before me." '*I remember him well. A thoroughly honest man, who did his work well down to the day of his death. And you are his son, eh? Well, and how did you meet with your accident?" At the end of Dyer's narrative, Dudgeon said, "I had heard they were upsetting the Works and discharging the old hands without mercy, and had come back to set matters to rights. I was to 34 have paid the Works a first visit tliis morning. Being the larjijost shareholder, besides a director, I have still a voice in the concern, and when I get well I will see what can he done for you. A man who has worked all his life tor a firm, as well as his father, has a claim for consideration which a master cannot ignore if a company can, particular- ly when he loses his eye at his work. So set your mind at rest about the future, and tell me how they have treated you in the hospital." "Me? They've treated me well enough. It's you; sir, I'm afrai'l they haven't treated with enough distinction. The fact is, they don't realise who you are." "Don't th«y?" "Don't they?" said Dudgeon, good-humor- edly, amused at the mechanic's anxiety on his be- half. "Considering the shabby way I treated them when I was well, I think they have heaped coals of fire upon my hea:i sufficiently. To introduce distinctions would be to disorganise the ward. Ob- serve how smoothly everything works in this place. All these poor fellows are more in want of attention than myself. I am leaving to-morrow. To me no- thing is more pleasing than to see that social equal- ity prevails in the ward, and that suftering is ttie only distinction that invites additional deference." A REGULAR PIECE OF ENGINEERING. Disabused of his idea that a slight had been cast upon Dudgeon, Dyer the mechanic launched out in praises of the institution. "Everything is clean and sweet, and seems to go like clockwork. Thej* bring a man in injured; the surgeon takes a sight at him, sir, as you or I would at a bit of iron, and then they all go to work washing and cleaning, coiling him up here, and padding him there, and then they fix his limbs in iron frames or wooden splints, and when at last they stow him under the 86 sheets ho's he a regular piece of engineering. They take in. on an aveiajj^c, twenty-fouracc-i'^lents a day, Sundit / and week-day. .ill the year rtmnd.and three of those are broken boi.es that need setting. Some- times, the accidents mount up to Hi xt}' a day, and on a frosty ni^ht as many as nine hroken legs will be brought into the place between midnight and six in the morning. Down below, I heard a nian say, they've got a cellar chock-full of splints, and they order them in, sii, by the hundred." DUDGEON AND DYER INSPECT THE WARD. The next moniing both Duiigeon and Dyer were up betimes, and, after the surgeon's inspection, pro- pared to leave the ward. While waiting for the Hou.-^e-Governor to arrive to show them over the building, he having willingly consente(i the night before the two mad<- a more thorough inspection of the ward. Sister Agatha acting as guide. There were the different kinds of beds for mitigating the rigor of lying long in one pasture ; the rests to ease the back or support the feet; the suri^ical apparatus, for severe fractures ; the mirrors at the back of the beds on the dark side of the ward to reflect the light on the patient's book or newspaper, while reading; the surgical table jn noiseless wheels, ready to be quietly rolled to any Vjedside while dressing or redressing a wound or a fracture; the stores of antiseptic appliances ; and the special utensils devised for promoting the patient's com- fort, and tiding him over periods of helplessness. Then there were the horizontal flues to point out, sucking out the vitiated atmosphere, and the venti- lating apparatus drawing in and warming the fresh air; then the surgeon's druggery — like a miniature doctor's shop — to describe ; then the lobby, with its blazing fire and steaming kettle, its huge white 36 table for distributing the pati'ints' food ; its rows of plates and dishes, and cheerful an ay of crockery on the walls; the scullery at the side, with the scullery- maids hard at work ; the lifis to bring food from the kitchen to the wards, and the drugs to the sur- iieon ; and outside the ward the shoots to carry away, at a stroke, all the dirty linen placed in it by the probationers. Finally, in a corner of the ward was the Sister's day -room — quite a little bower of elegance and beauty ; no waste of hospital funds on grand and imposing furniture, but an individual lavishing of occasional leisure moments on a thou- sand and one trifles, which had converted the little square compartment composing the Sister's room into a most charming retreat. A TRIUMPH OF HOSPITAL PROGRESS. Dudgeon was still making some complimentary remarks about Sister Agatha's sanctum, when the House-Governor appeared at the door. For forty years, he told Dudgeon and Dyer, as they walked away along the corridor, he had lived inside the hospital — first an assistant-secretary, then as sec- retary, and finally (for fifteen years) in charge of his present duties. He was a man of broad and enlightened views, and to improve his own organ- ization had directed so much attention to the ar- rangements and progress of other hospitals that he was quite a mine of knowledge on the subject. While taking them through two or three more of the surgical wards, all more or less of the same stamp as the Roderick, he had much to say of the amazmg saving of life in hospitals which had been brought about by the antiseptic methods of a great Professor of Surgery. "When I came here first the average moitality from the amputation cases was 30 per cent — in some hospitals it w».s 40, — in spite sec- rgan- e or- lat he bjecb. e of same the been great t the was 37 of all the care aivl skill we could commaml at that time. Things were mo better when 1 became House-Governor fifteen years ago. Then came the Professor, with his wonderful ideas of the germ theory of disease, and his ingenious methods of se- curing the absolute puiity of the surfaces of wounds. The moment we adopted his system the mortality began to decrease, and some of the hos- pitals brought it down last year to three per cent. HERO AT HOME AS WKLL AS ABROAD. "It fccems to me;" said Dudgeon, when the House- Governor had finished dilating on the revolution accomplished by the great Professor of Surgery, and the hundreds of thousand of lives saved throughout the world since the hospitals adopted the system "that a little of the raving bestowed upon the fc'reuch savints might be worthily be- stowed at home." "Quite so, and without any prejudice to the Frenchmen, whom we can all ad- mire just the same. In 1884 the Queen made the Professor a baronet for the good his discoveries had done,but isn't it a proof of the general lack of appre- ciation of medical science in this countrv, that he should not have been elevated at a stroke to the peerage? If ever you come in contact with those who have anythinij to do with the bestowing of titles" (addressing Dudgeon), "I hope you may have an opportunity of asking this question — Oughtn't a man who by study and hard work saves a hun- dred thousand lives by a great discovery, to have as much claim to peerage as a man who by a great campaign kills half as many more?' THE MEDICAL WARD. "Well, now you've seen enough of the surgical wards," he continued, as they quitted the fourth. "Lot me now show you the medical ones. There 38 are no essential differences between the two; the arrangements are exactly the same, but you will at once detect the different aspects of the patients. In the surgical wards there is not so much deathly paleness, because, apart from their wounds, the Eatients are healthy enough when they are brought ere." Beyond this Dudgeon and Dyer saw little to note, and having paf-sed through a couple of the men's wards, they proceeded to vivsit the women's which were arranged exactly the same, and pos- sessed similar chaiacteristics as to roominess, bright- ness and cheerfulness. Everywhere they found the print dressed, aproned nurses and probationers busily tending the patients, the Sister, scarcely dif - fei'ing from them in attire, directing everything un- obtrusively; and everywhere the same easy-work- ing system, indicating the smoothness that comes from constant practice, coupled with careful or- ganization of details — everjwhere an utter absence of officialism, and yet the constant practice of a kindly discipline. THE CANCER WARD. "Before going downstairs to the basement there is one special department I should like to show you," said the House-Governor, "it is especially de- voted to cases of cancer. The disease, when it reaches a certain stage, is practically incurable, and for want of rpom the hospitals have to reject incur- able cases. We, however, differ from the rest in having three wards set apart for the reception of these incurable cases, with beds for thirty-five female patients. Twenty years ago the sum of £4,000 was given anonymously to fit up a ward, and two other persons have helped to establish two more since. We take the poor creatures in, and we 39 keep them till they die "* "Is that usually long ?" asked Dudgeon. "Roughly, a year or two ; though some remain years in the refuge. Their diet is quite unlimited ; anything the physician may order to tempt their appetite, or to alleviate their pain, is obtained at once without question If we cannot cure, we do our utmost to reduce the pain to a minimum." A SCENE OF HUMAN MISERY. Dudgeon was painfully impressed oy the refuge. The wards were bright and arranged the same as the rest, but being small and connected with ^ne another, and containing chairs and tables lind couches, as well as the regulation bed, the place had more the aspect of a home. Some of the inmates were up and reading or sewing; some were sitting in bed ; some were buried in their pillows — ban- daged arms, or breasts, or the puffy condition of the lower pait of the counterpane indicating where the disease had attacked the body, But, except in one or two cases, there were traces of recent or present pain oii the pale faces of the women, which Dud- geon could not drive from his memory for many a day; and one poor creature, the who^e of whose head and face was bandaged, and who lay back in bed like a whitened mummy, vo shocked his sensi- bilities that he hurried out of the place, and beg- ged the House-Governor to kindly show him no more such sights. "It makes me ill to see such misery." WILL YOU HELP TO MITIGATE IT ? "Ah," said the House-Governor, "but what about us, who have this anguish brought to our doors *Thi8 Canuer E^tabliihtnent is a spucial feature of the Middle- sex Hospital. 40 every day, and have to serid it away unrelieved be- cause our funds are so limited ? That is far more shocking. These thirty-five patients are only a sample of the incurable cancer eases of the >metro- polis. Imagine hundreds of others unrelieved in squalid homes ! We have not a single bed to spare for men with cancers." "Tt is dreadful — really too dreadful. Can't they find a cure for the disease ?" "Medical research is doing its utmost, and in this refuge the physicians are always studying and striving to discover a cure. Kere you will see the interest the rich have in generously supporting the hospital. Isolated cases in a Western square can- not have the research brought to bear upon them that is possible in a cancer ward full ai poor peo- ple, and it may be that in this poor people's ward the discovery may be grad«ially elaborated which shall save the life of the richest man, or sooth the anguish of his wife and daughter. I hope, sir, you won't think I am talking at you, who are rich, and that I mean to pounce on your purse directly ; but I want you rich people, as well as this good man here, who repre-^ents the working masses, to take the hospital on its fair merits, and not make it merely a question of. charity to give it funds. I like our chaplain for that ; when he gets into the pulpit to preach a hospital sermon, he always tells the people that it is not charity but self-interest that should impel them to be liberal subsoribera." "I begin to think," said Dudgeon, "that there ex- ists a good deal of misconception about hospitals. The poor think the pounds of the rich keep them going, and the rich think the pence of the poor keep them going and between the two the hospitals run short of funds and have a bad time of it." 41 THE HOSPITAL KITCHEN, Deceiiding to the basement by a lift used for conveyinLT the patients to the diffei^nt stories, Dud- geon and Dj er followed the HouseAjOvernor along a passage to a huge room, with walls and ceiling covered with white tiles to admit of ready cleans- ing. "All the cooking is dene with gas and steam," observed the House-Governor, "and it saves an im- mense amount of Jaboi*. The system is this. Every afternoon the Sisters collect the diet sheets of each patient, and transmit them to the steward's office, where the clerks make out a gross list of the food required, and order it in. In the morning supple- mentary lists are made of any fresh diets ordered duriqgthe night, and then the cook goes to work. A few hands are drafted in, who get the food ready; and a few porterp are now coming in to help trans- mit it to the waids ; but, apart from this, all the work in the kitchen is done by one cook, and a kitchen and scullery maid. U is now halt-past eleven, and the food is going up into the wards. We send it in the gross, and in each war ' it is divided and distributed in the lobby. On his table are trays of fish, plaice, and ^.oles beautifully brown; here is boiled plaice ; and there are the hot water boxes to hold the food. The cook refers to his list; so many djets of plaice t< the Roderick ward ; he puts them in the box, shuts down the lid, the porter puts it on a troHy, and off it goes with other boxes to the lift. In a minute or two it will reach the ward as hot as it left here, and the probationers and nurses will be ready to serve it out to the patients." SERVING UP THE DINNERS. *'To-day is leg-of-mutton d&y. Forty or more legs of mutton are fixed inside the iron frame of this trolly, lowered by a lift into a safe, whence after a ♦ V 42 couple of hours, they return baked a beautiful brown color. On the table a porter places the lot, and the cook w^ghs so much for each ward, cut- ting up a leg now and as:aiQ to make up the re- quisite quantity. Here are the trays of chops — we cook seventy or eighty every day. There in that steam chest are nets of potatoes, each containing the quantity ordered for each ward. Those ovens be^'ond are -full of milk puddings — sago, tapioca, and so forth. The dishes are marked, so as to en- able i^-he pudding to be easily carved, into diets. The coppers at th.^ side are full of beef -tea. One sort consists of 8 oz., of bee K to the pint, another 16 oz.. and we have also some extract for special cases, 3 lb. to the pint. Every pint of the last costs half-a-crown." You must consume a tre- mendous amount of food every year," said Dyer. "Surprising," answered the House-Governor "We spent last year £1,200 on bread, £2,70C on milk, and £6,000 on meat. We used about a quarter of a million of eggs, costing nearly £1,000. Butter and cheese cost another £1,000; vegetables £700, grocery £550, and fish £570. Altogether, including fas and firing, the kitchen cost us nearly £15,000. 'rom the kitchen the party made their way to tte laundry, where, amidst the steam, the House-Gov- ernor explained the process by which the linen arriving by the shoots from the wards was soaked, steamed, rinsed, and wrung by machinery, and then passed on to capacious drying ovens adjoining the ironing room. "Every week we wash from 5000 to 7,000 sheets, and 300 to iOO blankets," he observed; "and from that coal -cellar there, at the end of the passage, about seven tons of coal have to be carried and distributed by porters in the various wards, every winter's morning. It'.', a nasty job, 48 taking them over- two hours; but open fives are so wholesome and cheerful, that we're bound to have them in all the wards." £5,000 A Y.AR ON MEDICINE. Ascending to the ground floor, the Hou . a man's interest and duty to give regularly a money don- ation to the hospital, but he is not morally bound to put up a drinking-fountain in a waiting-hall to be a benefit to out-patients. This is a free gift from a gentleman in memory of a little child. It was he who fitted up the coffee bar for us. Consid- ering that nearly 70,000 out-patients attend hera every year, and that their attendances amount to hundreds of thousand of times, I think you will agree with me that it must be a boon to the people. The out-patients come in such shoals," he con- tinued later on, "that we have had to adopt a sort of weeding proce.ss. We refuse no one ill who comes with a letter a fitst consultation, and we ad- mit every surgical case whether the sufierer have a letter or !;ot; but when we find that a patient real- ly can pay for a good doctor, we are forced by the swarms of really destitute people to ask the appli- P it V cant, to do so. 46 A hcspital cheat. "A typical case occurred a short time ago. A man from the Transvaal appeared at an Ophthalmic Hospital in the City »s an out-patient, and said he was very po >r, having lost all bis property in the war. (»Q the strength of this he was admitte'l as an in-patient to undergo an operation, and after the operation fell ill with an internal disease, and was brought here and died. When his clothes were examined it was found he had £6,00u in the bank, and his conscience having pricked him, he had sent, unknown to us, for a lawyer to make a will, and left 500 pounds .to the Eye Hospital. We exercise the greatest tact in w»>eding suspected cases, and the patients often benefit by the inquiry, as they get additional help from the Samaritan Fund." ''What is that fund?" inquired Dyer; "I've often heard it mentioned since I came here." "It is a fund kept apart fiom the regular hospital funds, and is managed by a separate committee; it supplies artificial limbs and mechanical aids to poor people, sends patients to convalescent homes, and makes small grants of money to poor persons on leaving the hospital. We make it our boast tl^at we never let anyone leave the hospital absolutely penniless if we can help it. A few shillings may be a god-send to a poor man, who on leaving the hos- pital may perhaps get nothing to eat till he earns it, and will tide him over starvation. As for the convalescent homes, most people know something about them. We send 800 patients a year to these homeSj And support them while there; but the pub- lic don't know what the hospital does in giving away surgical appliances." 4() SUBGICAL AID TO THE POOR. "Two of the surgical societies give away each about 5,000 appliances a year and between them have distributed 100,000 artifical limbs, bands, trus- ses, elastic stockings, and other similar things since they were established. The Hospital Sunday Fund spent last year ^1,G00 on this object. If you can only realize that one person out of every teii in the metropolis has to make use of some surgical appliance or other, you can appreciate the benefit conferred by the free distribution of these appliances. Poor persons, who would otherwise be a burden to the public, are enabled to earn a living and become useful members of society. Then the Samaritan Fund enables us to give free dinners to some of the out-patients who appear to be more in want of nourishment than medicine, and also milk to starving infants. The Samaritan Fund is thus one of the most useful branches of any hospi- tal." Taking his watch then out of his pocket, he added, "You have been too long on your feet now to go over the nursing home in the next wing, and the medical college over yonder which you can see from this window. Hundreds of students are edu- cated in the college, and having obtained a regular training in the hospital, go forth to become family doctors or famousi physicians. And not only does the hospital afford the best possible training to the family doctor, but it now supplies nearly all the nurses. Hundreds are trained in the hospital, and after acquiring experience in the ward, and s^'stem- atic medical instruction, go forth with their certifi- cate to assist the family doctor. Now for the Children's Ward, and we shall have seen most of the General Hospital 47 'und If IN THE CHILDREN'S WARD. "My favorite ward," said the House-Governor, ushering in Dud^^eon and filler on their arrival. "Here are forty beds full of little ones, all surgical cases. In some hospitals the children are stowed in cots among the adults, but we are able to keep them by themselves, which is much better. In an adults' ward they are aj 't to disturb the grown-up patients, and thoy are never so happy isolated as when put by themselves in a ward like this. Here are twenty cots on each side of the room^ with stands fixed over them for the children to put their toys on, and beyond are other wards devoted to more surgical cases, and then medical wards — all in the same style." Evidently the Hou8e-(]lover- nor was a favorite, for lots of the little heads peep- ed above the cots when his voice was heard, and a youngster shouted' out lustily from the end of the ward- "Daddy — I say, daddy, look here!" "Keep quiet, you rogue, till I come," replied the House- Governor, good-naturedly. The boy continuing to beg him to come, the party walked down the ward to his cot. ''A boy of nine," observed the House- « -overiior as they went along, "who has been here for two months suffering from a stiff knee. He is nearly well and we're going to send him to a con- valescent home at Eastbourne next week." "Look here, look here!" shouted the boy, holding out a book — one of those gorgeously bound volumes which Nelson and Sons issue for presents and prizes for two or three shillings. "Look, here — "The Swiss Family Jlobison," iull of pictures, which a kind lady has just given me. Look at all the gold upon the cover. You shall have i£ to read, daddy, when I have done." "Go on, you little rogue," said the House-Governor, poking him good humoredly in tn l\ ■Jii; Ui 48 the ribs, but evidently quite rh well pleased a i. the boy. THE KIND OF A BOOK FOIt A HO>PITAL- Placing the book in Dudgeon's hands, he said, "'ih/t*F the kind of a book for a hospital. You would b? astonished at the rubbish people dend — old magazines, dirty and torn and not in consecu- tive numlers, and then expect us to pay the car- riage. We don't want rubbish, I tell them, but bright, cheerful boolcs like these, lasting just long enough to be well read, and no longer. On aani- tarj" grounds if doesn't do for a bgok to last too long in a hospital, and a bright cover excites the people's desires to read it far more than the strong- est dull binding in calf." Passing then along the beds, he pointed out some of the cases to Dudgeon. "There's anew arrival," pointing. to a stolid child who had been crying, but now was quiet. "( 'arae in this morning. Fell off the curbstone and broke its leg. This one — ah, what, you've got a new drum; that is nice. This one broke his ankle in jumping off a chair. That one is a ti acheotomy case. Swallowed poison causing the throat to close, and we had to open the throat and insert a tube for him to breathe through. Nasty case; he has been here nearlv a twelvemonth, but the worst is over, and the doctors think they'll save him. Hello!" (taking up a little boy who had run up and clasped his knee). "This youngfster has spent most of his life in the hospital. He lias always got some serious illness and the moment he recovers he breaks a leg or aim, and conies in again. •There — off you go" (speaking to the child). "He's leaving us to-morrow" (addressing Dudgeon again). A WORD FOR M. P.'S. "This one," he continued "is a lamp explosion case, II 49 The niothor was turninir down the wick of a cheap parattino lamp, when it exploded and burnt the child all over. "Thowe beastl}' paraffin iampBl" ex- (^jyiiiied Dyc'r, "You may well say that," continued the HouHC-Govemor. "Every week we have to ad- mit M-veralp ople Hufforiiig from burns and ex- ploions, and they say that nearly every w^eek an inquest is held in London on somebody killed by them, i'ariiament insists upon safe Jamps tor the mines, but, considering that hundreds of people throughout the country are annually burnt or killed by oil lamps, why dwes it not insist upon safe lamps l';>r the masses? Most of the cheap lamps might be marked, '< Jortain death, or the house on fire, if upset,' and the manufacturers know i.t Do you know that one-fifth of the fires in London are caused by mineral oil lamps?" ^ A (HILDREN's hospital SUNDAY. As they returned through the boy's surgica- ward.they hear 1 the boy with the stiff knee crown ing afresh, an«i, looking rounr', saw the Chaplair entering with his pockets bulging out in a mannel most unl>ecomino for a trim ecclesiastic. From these he extracted several toys and distributed them to those of the youngsters who appeared to be at all in the dumps, while the House-Governor whispered to Dudgeon. "The Chaplain's favorite walk is to the Mansion House, to pick up the cheap penny novelties that art? sold in ( 'heapside. He'll keep the ward quite the whole afternoon when he brings home something new and out of the ccm- mon. Look at him; he's just as pleased as they are. His latest idea is to get up among the Sunday School teacheis a regular annual Children's Hospi- tal Sunday. Each child n.ight bring a toy, or a 60 book, or a penny to the collection, and the proceeds could be (livideo among the children's wards of the various London hospitals. It's a splendid iden,and he hopes to persuade all tht clergy to take it up before long" "You're wanted out**ide;" said tlie 1. haplain, coining up — "I shall be with you to lunch almost directly." We'll see what it is" replied the House-Uovernor, "and then we'd go up stairs through the hospital staff's quarters to the dining- room. We officials all feed together and after your tiring inspection I am sure you must want some luncheon." THE HOUSE- GOVERNOR WANTED. When they reached the outside, where conval- escent patients were Avalking about in the small but well-kept garden, or smoking in the pavilion in the centre set aside for that purpose, they saw a cart heaped up with bird-cages, in charge of si middle-aged man in a coarse grey tweed suit. He was the bird fancier's executor, and the dead mas- ter of the bttle pets having been buried the day before, he had brought his bequest to the hospital. At the back of the cart was a splendid parrot, in a brand new cage, which, as the House-Governor went down the steps, startled him by exclaiming in the mo^t natural voice in the world, "Mind how you fall, old fei! > .v!" "Just the very thing for the Children's Ward," said the House-Governor in a tone of delight. "I'll take it in to them at once. No, I won't, though; the Chaplain shall do it. He deserves the treat far more than myself — a really genuine, yood-hearted fellow! Stop! he mustn't have it all till after luncheon, or we shan't have him at table with us. Once he gets that parrot in the ward, there'll be no getting him out of it again." 51 Finding the man couldwait for a while with the canaries and larks and linnets, the House-Governor conducted Dudgeon and Dyer into the Hospital again, followed by the farewell cry of the pariot — "Oh, you naughty boys; won't I tell your mother!" THE LUNCHEON TOGETHER. All three, delighted and amused, then traversed a corridor terminating in an extension of the hos- pital devoted to the statf. Kecli official had his own set of rooms, and iu the basement was a kit- chen devoted to the whole, communicating* by a lift with a room on the ground floor overlooking the garden, where they lunched iu common, riare assembled and already having luncheon were the Matron and Secretary, and the Stoward, several house-surgeons and physicians — one of the former of whom had attended both Dudgeon and Dyer, — and at the end of the table the Chaplain. Taking a seat at tho top, the i f ouse-Governor placed Dud- geon and Dyer one on each 4de of him (in spite of the prote"^ts of the latter, who did not wish to thrust himself on "such great people"), and assisted them to the cold joint and the salad on the tabl»^ apologizing for the simple character of the luncheon on the grounds that he wished them to see how they all lived every day. "In front of you are jugs of milk and table-ljeer, and if you care for cocoa and coffee the Chaplain will help you at the other end of the table." The conversation was at first about what they thought of the hospital, and by degrees it worked round to the question of Hospi- tal Sunday. The Secretary was verj- indignant at the small results achieved hitherto by the Hospital Sunday Fund. " Bearing in mind the vast popu- lation of the metropolis, £30,000 or £40,000 is a 62 paltry amount for- the largest city in the worlti. Last year the collection amounted to only £36,000, and it costs £60,000 to keep the General Hospital alone going. The collection in London was less than in many of the provincial cities, notwithstand- ing its size and wealth; and yet the London people in a general way profess to be proud of their hos- pitals." HARD KNOCKS FOR THE MIDDLE CLASSES. This led to a discussion in which, perhaps out of delicacy for the representatives of capital and labor piesent, the Secretary directed th« denunci- ations chiefly against the middle classes. "We train their nurses, we spend our money in trying to find out cures for cancer, consumption, and other diseases they all suffer from, and yet they are as lumpy as lead to our appeals tor contributions. Your £10,000-a-year-man gives large donations from benevolence, and other motives we need not discuss; and your £2-a-week man gives a trifle be- cause his wife and children, as well as himself, are liable to attend the hospital. But what can you do with the thousands of Londoners with incomes ranging from £300 a year upwards. They can't afford large donations, and out of pride won't have small ones published in the papers and when the Hoiipital Sunday people take them in hand a three- penny-piece or sixpence mostly represents a year's contributions. The middle classes, fat and apa- thetic, want stirring up far more than the masses." DYER HIMSELF PERFORMS AN OPERATION ON LEAVING. After luncheon Dyer got up from his seat and said. "I. hope you will excuse me now if I leave; I'm afraid the missis may be running about trying to find me. T thank jfou all from the bottom of 53 my heart for your kindness. I'm not good at s[)eechifying, but a man can feel gratitude if he can't find words to express it." "Well, Dyer," ob- served Dudgeon, wishing to avoid any scene, "you must have a few days rest to get used to your one eye, and in the meantime your pay will run on from the «^ay you left, as before, The office will tell you when to return to work." "Thank you, sir, foi' your goo house in Mortgrarait Square aw soon as he was well, not forgetting to bring with them Sister Agatha. A LESSON LEARNED BY CRCESUS. "You have shown me" he said as he quitter" the room, "that self-interest as well as benevolence should dictate a readier appreciation of hospital work, and you will find, f think, so far as I am concerned, without my making rash promises, that the General Hospital has secured in me a Gover- nor for Life." And so it had; for the same day the House-Governor received from him a cheque for £10,000, to be applied to various branches of the hospital as he thought fit, and there are rumors about now that he proposes spending ten times that 1 1 c s 55 sum in adding a Dudgeon Wing to it If he does, his munificenee will help to mitigate a little of the human misery of our great met» ^oHh. Yet only a little, so vast is the misery in a city which counts its sick yearly by hundreds of thcusands. The magnanimous behaviour of Dudgeon and Dyer con- sequently does not exhaust the good to be done, and plenty, alas, is left to be accomplished bj^ kind- ly hearts and generous purses. What occurred to then) may happen to you or I ere the year is out; and let us hope, therefore, that if we are carried helpless into an accident ward, we shall not have it on our conscience that, knowing what we now do of the good work the hospital does, we were shabby in our contributions at Church on Hos- pital Sunday. "GOD LOVETH A CHEERFUL GIVER."