Extract from the ninth annual report of the State Board of Charities of the State of New York, relating to hospitals for the sick and insane / by M.B. Anderson, J.C. Devereux ; to which is appended a report relating to the management of the insane in Great Britain by H.B. Wilbur.

  • Anderson, M. B. (Martin B)
Date:
1876
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Extract from the ninth annual report of the State Board of Charities of the State of New York, relating to hospitals for the sick and insane / by M.B. Anderson, J.C. Devereux ; to which is appended a report relating to the management of the insane in Great Britain by H.B. Wilbur. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    REPORT. To the State Board of Charities : The committee to which was referred the consideration of hospitals for the sick and insane have found that the subject is so much depend¬ ent for its elucidation upon the observations and study of experts that they have thought it best to seek aid from the experience of profes¬ sional men, and to confine themselves to such general aspects of that experience as lie open to common thought and study. The con¬ struction of hospitals and the policy which should govern the state in its appropriations to that purpose are complicated with the whole subject of the remedial agencies most likely to benefit the suffering persons thrown upon the state for care. The question of hospital building is, and ought to be, subordinated to the alleviation and care of disease. No policy of construction can be a sound one which loses sight of the great purpose for which all hospitals are de¬ signed. Looking at the subject from this point of view, it has been urged upon legislative bodies that economy in expenditure which lost sight of this great end was not only unwise, but inhuman. In conse¬ quence, the state has acted on the policy that the buildings which for the benevolent end in view, are the best, are, on the whole, however expensive they may be, the cheapest. For this reason buildings of great solidity and with elaborate fixtures have been erected, at a heavy ex¬ pense, in various parts of the state. How far these motives have been enforced by the agency and influence of commissionei’s desirous of elegant structures for the gratification of local pride, it is not our pur¬ pose to inquire. As the motive for these expensive structures has, in general, been a praiseworthy one, however unintelligently it may in some cases have been exercised, so all sound reform in the direction of economy should be controlled by the same impulse and directed to the same ends. Within the last twenty years a change of opinion has been wrought among physicians and surgeons regarding the adaptation of solid struc¬ tures, intended to last for ages, to hospital purposes. Hospitals for fevers and surgical operations, after long use, have been proved dan-