Observations on the site and construction of hospitals / by Sir George Ballingall.

  • Ballingall, George, 1780-1855.
Date:
1851
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the site and construction of hospitals / by Sir George Ballingall. 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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    laid on without sufficient attention to the removal of the old; and thus, as it has been somewhat facetiously said, “ white dirt is heaped over black dirt.” In all such cases the old plaster should be picked off the walls : the partitions, if necessary, removed or altered, and the whole plastered anew. Where the prevailing defect of old buildings does not exist, and where sufficient elevation has originally been given to the wards, it is in our power, by such a measure, to renovate the Hospital, and to introduce into it, at a mo- derate expense, all the more valuable characteristics of a modern building. In support of the opinion that buildings less imposing in appearance, and less ex- pensive in their nature, would not be less conducive to the successful treatment of the sick, I would refer to the temporary barrack hospitals, erected in many of our country towns during the last war. These consisted of a few feet of stone or bi ick-work as a basement, the rest of the structure being of wood. In a comparison of more than twenty Hospitals, civil and military, in which I have served nearly half a century in different quarters of the world, I have found none more favourable to the treatment of disease, or to the convalescence of the patients, than the simple and unpretending structures to which I refer. A substantial coat of wooden planking externally covered over with pitch, and the interior finished with lath and plaster, renders such buildings sufficiently comfortable, even for the winter months ; while buildings of a still slighter description may suffice for the summer season, or for more temperate climates. Such structures are peculiarly adapted to occasional emergencies, whether arising from the incidents of warfare or the presence of prevalent epidemics. An eligible site may in most cases be found for them; and I consider them not less economical, and much more propitious to the health of the in- mates, than such old, ill-ventilated, and faulty houses as are occasionally provided for them. Of the temporary War-Hospitals, a good example is to be seen in the Barrack Hospital at Greenlaw, near Edinburgh, of which I have a plan and elevation in the Museum of the Class of Military Surgery. This has recently been converted into a mili- tary prison; and I was much struck, on visiting the building a few weeks ago, with the perfect state in which the exterior remains after a lapse of some forty years. Nume- rous wooden sheds, erected several years ago during the prevalence of fever in Ireland, are still to be seen at Dublin, the best of which are those connected with the Cork Street Fever Hospital. But it is to buildings of a more permanent character that the following remarks more particularly apply ; and it is of great importance that the pro- fession and the public should know that Hospitals are not necessarily, nor advan- tageously, made of an expensive character. With a view to economy, the walls of an Hospital cannot be made too plain without; and, with a view to the health of the in- mates, they cannot be made too plain within. This, as regards the exterior, has reference not merely to the character of the masonry, but to the absence, as far as possible, of all superfluous wings or exten- sive projections of any kind from the body of the building. Such projections necessarily imply the existence of corners or recesses, which become reservoirs of stagnant air; and in deciding upon the exterior form of an Hospital, the great problem to be solved seems to be this—to give the external atmosphere free access to as many points of the building as possible; leaving no part of it to be supplied with stagnant, borrowed, or