Devonshire hospital and Buxton Bath charity : instituted for the relief of poor persons from all parts of Great Britain and Ireland suffering from rheumatism, gout, sciatica, and neuralgia ; pains, weakness or contractions of joints or limbs, arising from these diseases, or from sprains, fractures, or other local injuries ; chronic forms of paralysis ; dropped hands, and other poisonous effects of lead, mercury, or other minerals ; spinal affections ; dyspeptic complaints, uterine obstructions, and such disorders as may depend upon a rheumatic or gouty diathesis ; supported by annual subscriptions and voluntary contributions : annual report for the year 1892 ; medical report and statistics, management, history, annual statement, accounts, rules and regulations, list of subscriptions and benefactions &c., Bath charity report for 1785 ; copies of conveyances of hospital and baths from the seventh Duke of Devonshire to the trustees ; and meteorological report for the year 1892.

  • Devonshire Royal Hospital (Buxton, Derbyshire, England)
Date:
1893
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Devonshire hospital and Buxton Bath charity : instituted for the relief of poor persons from all parts of Great Britain and Ireland suffering from rheumatism, gout, sciatica, and neuralgia ; pains, weakness or contractions of joints or limbs, arising from these diseases, or from sprains, fractures, or other local injuries ; chronic forms of paralysis ; dropped hands, and other poisonous effects of lead, mercury, or other minerals ; spinal affections ; dyspeptic complaints, uterine obstructions, and such disorders as may depend upon a rheumatic or gouty diathesis ; supported by annual subscriptions and voluntary contributions : annual report for the year 1892 ; medical report and statistics, management, history, annual statement, accounts, rules and regulations, list of subscriptions and benefactions &c., Bath charity report for 1785 ; copies of conveyances of hospital and baths from the seventh Duke of Devonshire to the trustees ; and meteorological report for the year 1892. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

    12/87 (page 12)
    PREFACE. to the Trustees, at the nominal rent of five shillings yearly. (A copy of this Conveyance will be found at page 35.) An undertaking was entered into during the same year, by which the Charity Natural Bath is held by the Trustees under a nominal rent of five shillings yearly. During the thirty-four years since the Hospital was opened, there have been 58,996 Patients under treatment, of which number 52,418 have been treated beneficially; and 6941, or about one-eighth of the whole, were not suffering from any of the forms of rheumatism, but were such cases as are ordinarily met with in hospitals. On the average of the thirty-four years, the Patients remained under treat- ment nearly 24 days; and 52,255 cases of rheumatism, embracing every conceivable variety of this obstinate disease, were thus extensively relieved by the remedial agency of the Buxton mineral waters. During the year 1881, the great extension works of the Hospital were practically completed; and the Hospital was formally opened by the Pati’on, His Grace the late Duke of Devonshire, and the Governors of the Cotton Districts Convalescent Fund, on the 11th of October. The accommodation for the additional number of Patients, under the grant of £24,000 from the Cotton Districts Convalescent Fund, was obtained by the removal of the two walls which traversed the entire circuit of the main building, and formed the corridor communicating with the various wax-ds; the whole space from the outside to the inside of the building was thus thrown open, and inner and outer windows supplied to all the wax’ds; the intexmal area was thus increased vex-y greatly, and ample space provided for wards and day-rooms to l’eceive and accommodate the 300 Patients. But an independent means of access to all the rooms of the Hospital was rendered necessax’y in consequence of this arrangement; and this was obtained by covering the large area of the interior, and giving access to the ground floor rooms from the floor of the inner basement, and to the rooms of the upper floor, from a gallery above this. This arrangement has, however, not only supplied the means of access t o all pax-ts of the Hospital, but has enabled all the wards to be practically detached from one another, almost giving the advantages of the deservedly praised pavilion principle of hospital construction ; while it has facilitated the ventilation of the whole building to an impoi’tant degree, and incx'eased the free and ready admission of light to evei’y part of the interior. The gallery, has with much ingenuity been constructed exclusively of bxdcks and iron, by which it has been x’endered entirely fire proof, giving all possible security in the event of fire. The great, covered, dry, warmed area of half-an-acre, canopied by the largest dome that has ever been erected, supplies vei\y obvious and valuable contingent advantages, fox* the recreation of the Patients iix all cold or doxxbtful weather; advantages which must represent a value to the afflicted and often crippled inmates, beyond any calcxxlation. As the whole of the main building is now devoted to the Patients of the Hospital, new buildings have been erected on the north side, for all purposes thatmight.be desirably detached, such as kitchens and kitchen offices, laundries.