Modern hospital construction / by E.C. Robins.

  • Robins, E. C.
Date:
1883
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Modern hospital construction / by E.C. Robins. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Snell, is effected by purely natural meana, and is dependent, therefore, upon the very simple and well-known fact that heated air ydll always rise to a higher point than the colder air surrounding it, and that in its passage it will carry away with it noxious gases and other deleterious matters which would otherwise, by reason of their greater density, remain stationary or descend to the floor-level. The fresh air is brought in under the bed-heads, and is extracted by horizontal channels in the ceiling between each pair of beds communicating with 14 in. and 9 in. vertical ventilating-flues in the walls. The general ventilation of the wards is supple- mented by the central stoves and upcast shafts in the side-waUs, the total area of the outlet and inlet flues being 15 ft. in each of these sick wards. In the separation-rooms, 1,300 cubic feet of air-space is given to each of the two beds. The cost was only 177^. per bed. In the year 1867 I was engaged by the guardians of the parish of St. Pancras to erect several dispensaries, having successfully com- peted for the enlargement of the workhouse, which, however, was not then carried out; but I won a premium for my design for the St. Pancras Infirmary in the year 1869, the plans of which are exhibited to-night, consisting of five blocks of wards, three stories in height, with separate administrative block, and all con- nected by the usual corridor, forming an ambu- latory over, as shown in the perspective view. I now come to the consideration of general hospitals, some of which, both in England and on the Continent, I have personally inspected; and for others I shall be dependent chiefly on the well-attested facts given in Dr. Mouat and Mr. Snell's book, which cannot be too highly praised, and will always remain a useful aide- memoire to the profession, and reference-book for the student, to whom, I must also recommend (in addition to Mr. Godwin's essays and Captain Galton's reports in the Herbert Hospital and the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital, and his papers in the Lancet in connexion with Dr. Sutherland)