The number and distribution of micro-organisms in the air of the Boston City Hospital : with some carbonic acid determinations / by Greenleaf R. Tucker.

  • Tucker, Greenleaf R.
Date:
[1889]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The number and distribution of micro-organisms in the air of the Boston City Hospital : with some carbonic acid determinations / by Greenleaf R. Tucker. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    space, excellent ventilation, and perfect cleanliness of these buildings, is sufficient to account for their freedom from micro-organisms. Isolating Wards, K and L. A two-story brick building, located near the southern corner of the grounds, contains the male and female isolating wards, which are shown in plates I. and II. The building is 10H feet long, and 46^ feet wide, with a basement or cellar underneath, which brings the first floor to a height of about two feet above the ground level. There is a ventilating chamber on the roof, 10 feet wide, extending the whole length of the building. A hall or passage way, 10 feet wide, divides each story, with rooms on either side, and windows at each end, excepting at the entrance door on the first floor. There are ten rooms on each floor, 14 feet by 15 feet in size, and designed to accommodate from one to four patients in each. The rooms on the first floor, for male patients, are 14 feet high ; and those on the second floor, for females, are 18 feet high. The fresh-air supply is admitted through openings in the outer wall under the windows, and near the floor in each. A steam radiator is placed in front of these openings, and surrounded by a casing of wood lined with tin, having a register in front. A simple arrangement of sliding valves within the casing controls the temperature and volume of the entering air. The air of these rooms is believed to be changed from three to four times hourly. The service of these wards is the most arduous of any con- nected with the hospital. For many years they furnished the only available place for the treatment of contagious diseases, as well as a class of cases which, by reason of un- cleanliness, delirium, etc., were not fit to remain in an open ward. During the summer of 1888 they were vacated, and thoroughly renovated. The opening of the new wards for contagious diseases has removed the necessity of treating such cases here. At present there are treated in these wards, alcoholismus, alcoholic pneumonia, erysipelas, rheumatism, typhoid fever, and many unclean medical and surgical cases.