The report of the ordinary and resident medical officers, and the Inspector and Director of the Public Hospital, Kingston, Jamaica, for the year 1865.
- Kingston Public Hospital (Jamaica)
- Date:
- 1866
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The report of the ordinary and resident medical officers, and the Inspector and Director of the Public Hospital, Kingston, Jamaica, for the year 1865. 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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![oilour really did an’se from these sink-holes ; and on every visit we found that the stink was intolerable, a fact acknowledged by many casual visitors to the Hospital. We therefore with as little delay as possible had some of these sink-holes closed up and the others fur- nished with efficient stink-traps. The nuisance is thus in some mea- sure abated. The privies which communicate with this main drain are of the most unsatisfactory construction. In each of those used by the pa- tients, there are several seats placed above an open vault through whicli the main drain runs; and for want of proper flushing and other apparatus, the out-let to this vault is fre(|[uently choked ; and often, to remove the obstruction, the drain has to be dug down to, and opened outside the privy. No apparatus exists to prevent the escape of foul air from these privy vaults, and consequently, between the intervals of the so called process of flushing the smell in and around these buildings is nauseous in the extreme, and almost insup- portable. Such odours must exercise a prejudicial effect on the pa- tients, as one of these privies, though a separate building, is only about fifteen feet from the windows of some of the wards, and the other may almost be said to be under the very roof of other of the wards. Such an imperfect system of drainage and privy accommo- dation is a disgrace to the Hospital, aud should be amended with as little delay as possible. As we have said before, there are certain hours, as during the ])revalence of the usual daily strong sea-breeze, when the offensive odour is not much felt aud a casual visitor might think that the Hospital is perfect in its drainage arrangements ; but when the wind is in such a direction as to blow directly up the drain, or when there is no breeze at all, the smell in some of the wards is most disagreeable. Apart from the evils we have already mention- ed we have alse to state that the present drain is insufficient to carry off the surface water that accumulates during the heavy tropi- cal rain. The past year has been one of unusual drought; and on only one or tw o occasions has this defect been practically demonstra- ted. The medical wards and the operating ward, we must remark are built in a hollow surrounded on at least three sides by elevated land and consequenlly most of the raiinvater that falls in the Hos- pital, drains into this hollow in which are the sink-holes above re- ferred to. We have within the last few months know n this hollow filled with water to the depth of some inches. It drained off in a few hours, but left behind it a stratum of stinking mud, the result of the washing of the Hospital premises. This had to be scraped and w^ashed off subsequently. The result of this flood however was that for seve- ral days after this deposit accumulated, more than the usual amount of secondary dysentery and intermittent fever prevailed in the Hos- pital wards. In concluding these observations on the drainage and privy accommodation of the institution, we would express it as our opinion, that even were an efficient system of flushing adopted there would still remain many other serious defects requiring to be reme- died Vvith regard to drainagf' and many other points connected with the buildings, management and internal economy of the Hospital, n](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22337775_0011.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
