Reports of the practice in the clinical wards of the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh ... / [Andrew Duncan].

  • Duncan, Andrew, Jun., 1773-1832
Date:
1818
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Reports of the practice in the clinical wards of the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh ... / [Andrew Duncan]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    18/158 (page 8)
    S' For the Clinical School of the University of Edinburgh two small wards are allotted upon the first floor of the wings of the Hospital, one for each sex. They have cross lights, and are paved with tiles. Each consists of a body having four windows and eight beds, and three corner closets, with a window and two beds in each, making 14 beds in each ward. A fourth closet is for the day nurse, who has a night nurse as an assistant. * There is one fire-place in the body of the wo¬ men’s ward, and a fire in the nurse’s closet. In the men’s ward there are fires in two of the closets, which, besides, are over the hot baths, and one in the nurse’s closet. The doors open into stair¬ cases, and are always open. The bedsteads are of iron ; the bedding good ; the ventilation is free, sometimes excessive; and, upon the whole, the wards are as comfortable as their original con¬ struction will allow. The professor in charge of the clinical wards has the choice of the patients admitted each day by the ordinary physicians of the hospital, and it is his object to have as great a variety of diseases under his care as possible, and to select of each the most severe and interesting examples. In this ward, therefore, there are both chronic and acute cases, and one-half of the body of each ward is ap¬ propriated to fevers, and divided from the rest by a * Including the closets, they are 50 feet long, 26 wide, and about 11 high, for 15 beds, which amounts to a little more than 86.5 square feet of surface to each person, or 953-3 cubi¬ cal feet.