St Bartholomew's Hospital

“ On the 8th of July, 1872, the Prince of Wales, as President of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, formally opened a new Convalescent Home, in connection with that Hospital. This was an institution much needed at the time, and its advantages had long been urged on the Governors by Mr. Foster White, the Treasurer. At several existing Homes, such as at Walton-on-Thames, and Bognor, patients from St. Bartholomew's had been received, but it was desirable to have an establishment of its own, and conducted by its own officers. ”

“ Bartholomew's hospital, the total in the three will be 10,617: add to these, the number cured in the hospitals at Hyde-park corner and Westminster, the London Infirmary, the Middlesex, Small-pox, Bethlehem, and other hospitals in London, and they will amount to 15,000 at least. Add to this number the patients cured in the hospitals at Winchester, Bath, Bristol, Newcastle, Shrewsbury, Northampton, Liverpool, and the two hospitals at Exeter; I think there are fourteen of them out of London in different counties ”

“ Bartholomew's Hospital, founded by a Catholic monk, in the hoary past, is the oldest and largest hospital in London, as its students are the wildest and most reckless in the metropolis. The number of in-door patients is 7,000; out-door, 100,000, annually, and the yearly income is £32,000. There are 700 beds, 36 professors, and 500 students. ”

“ Bartholomew's Hospital, of which the long front faces the market-place, forms part of Rahere's original foundation. Refounded by Henry VIII. after the dissolution of the monasteries, it is now almost the wealthiest, as well as the oldest, hospital in London. It admits over 100,000 patients annually, and its medical school is famous. Just within its Smithfield gateway, which dates from the year 1702, and is adorned by a statute of Henry VIII., is the church of St. Bartholomew the Less, originally built by Rahere just after his return from Rome, but re-erected in 1823. ”

“ Bartholomew's Hospital he worked in the post-mortem room as a demonstrator during 1846 and 1847, but in the latter year his health broke down, and he left London and went to practise as a physician at Brighton. In 1848 he published ‘Clinical Observations on Continued Fever,’ and in 1853 he was elected physician to the Sussex County Hospital. ”

“ Bartholomew’s hospital to the citizens “for relieving of the poore;” and thereupon the inhabitants of the city were called together in their parish churches, where sir Richard Dobbs the lord mayor, the several aldermen, and other principal citizens, showing the great good of taking the poor from their miserable habitations, and providing for them in hospitals abroad, men were moved liberally to contribute what they would towards such hospitals, and so weekly, towards their maintenance for a time, until they were fully endowed ”

“ Bartholomew’s Hospital. There were two outhouses, one in Kent Street, Southwark, the other in Kingsland. They were founded originally as Lazar-houses for the use of lepers. The “Lock” in the Borough was used for women; the “Spital” in Kingsland for men. Each contained about thirty beds and was under the charge of a guider, guide or surgeon, who was appointed by the Governors of the Hospital, and received from them in Harvey’s time an annual stipend of four pounds a year and fourpence a day for the diet of each patient under their care. ”

“ Bartholomew, in which the Saint, with a practical regard to detail, ordered Rahere to build a church in Smithfield, a behest the noble fulfilment of which is made evident in the old walls that have weathered so many centuries, and the Hospital next door.
St. Bartholomew's is one of those buildings which has, like some people, to be known to be loved. At first one is almost repelled by its austere and dignified beauty. It is unapproachable with the unapproachableness of the great. ”

“ Bartholomew's Hospital in 1848, and held office for twelve years. His lectures were good, and their substance is contained in ‘Lectures on Diseases of Women,’ published in 1856 and in three later editions. In 1852, largely owing to his exertions, the Hospital for Sick Children was opened in Richard Mead's house in Great Ormond Street, London [see Mead, Richard] , and he became its senior physician, an office which he held for twenty-three years. He was much consulted on the diseases of women and children till 1880, when his health obliged him to go to Nice for the winter. ”

“ The Church of St. Bartholomew the Less is within the walls of the Hospital, is octagonal in shape, with painted glass windows, is well heated with hot air, and is reckoned one of the handsomest chapels in London.
The Hospital is the oldest and richest of all our charitable institutions in London. ”

“ Bartholomew’s hospital commenced, and it was endowed and furnished at the charges of the citizens. [284] The number of the poor and sick to be maintained therein, was limited under the foundation of Henry VIII. to one hundred; but, at this time, several thousands of persons who need surgical aid are annually received and relieved, under the management of the most eminent surgeons of our age.
Smithfield, whereon the Fair was held, was likewise a market-place for cattle, hay, straw, and other necessary provisions ”

“ At the commencement of the last century it was rebuilt by public subscription, three wards being erected at the cost of Thomas Frederick, and three by Guy, the founder of Guy's Hospital.
The first place of precedency amongst the London Hospitals is contended for by St. Bartholomew's and Guy's. They are both alike important by their wealth, the number of patients entertained within their walls, and the celebrity of the surgeons and physicians with whom their schools have enriched the medical profession ”

“ I have almost forgotten the smoke; my lodgings are clean and convenient. I am making friends, and I shall use all the opportunities I can get for studying social subjects and seeing society, provided they do not interfere with my work and are not too expensive.
My first introduction to St. Bartholomew’s was at a breakfast at Mr. Paget’s. He has a house within the hospital boundaries, and a special oversight of the students. At the commencement of each session he invites the students to breakfast in parties of about a dozen, and to one of those breakfasts I, on my arrival, was invited. ”

“ Bartholomew's Hospital. ‘It is one of the most vivid and vigorous productions of the time’ (C. H. Herford, England and Germany in the Sixteenth Century, 1886, p. 358) , and is full of curious information about the cheats and beggars who resorted to the hospital at some period after Henry VIII's statute (1530–1) against vagabonds (see l. 375) , and subsequent to the Reformation (1. 551) . ”

“ Bartholomew's Hospital, the city undertook its refitting, and Vicary was on 29 Sept. 1548 appointed a governor, and was reappointed each year till June 1552, when he was made ‘one of the assistants of this house for the terme of his life’ (original Minute Book) . On 2 Oct. 1554 it was ordered that he should have the oversight of all such officers as be within the hospital, in the absence of the governors. He lived in the hospital, where his house was kept in repair by the governors, and he received an annual grant of livery of ‘fyne newe collour’ of four yards, at 12s. a yard. ”

“ Bartholomew’s hospital; held anatomy classes at his residence Charterhouse sq., suppressed by the hospital 1825; M.R.C.S. Nov. 1825, F.R.C.S. 1843, member of council 1850, member of court of examiners 1862, V.P. 1864, gave his collections to the Hunterian museum; made discoveries respecting the structure of and circulation through the liver ”

“ The Compilers trust that the following particulars concerning this, the oldest Church now remaining in London, will prove acceptable to residents and others who are unacquainted with the many points of interest attaching to the ancient structure.
A Sketch of St. Bartholomew Fair, Bartholomew’s Hospital, and also of Canonbury Tower, all of which are intimately associated with the Priory, have likewise been added. ”

“ The regulations of the hospitals are nearly the same as they are in London and New York. In cases of severe wounds, persons are admitted into the hospitals without any order, by simply presenting themselves at the doors. Medical advice is given at some of the hospitals on certain days to poor persons. The hospitals of Paris are of three kinds; the general, open to all complaints for which a special hospital is not provided; the special hospitals, for the treatment of special diseases; and the alms-houses. ”

“ Such disadvantages might be entirely removed if parliament would decide to throw open every poor-law infirmary for clinical purposes, and to have connected with each such establishment a responsible visiting medical staff, consisting of the best qualified men to be found in the community which each hospital serves. The old prejudice against hospital treatment has disappeared, for the least intelligent members of the population now understand that, when a citizen is sick, there is no place so good as the wards of a well-administered hospital. ”

“ They visited almost daily the hospitals on the Fair Grounds in that city, where an average of from 1000 to 2000 sick and wounded men were being cared for. Many other visitations were made to private hospitals and private dwellings, where the necessities of the occasion happened to place the disabled soldiers. Particular attention was paid to the patients in the McDowell College, used as a hospital for sick prisoners of war. The Sisters sent large hampers to this institution filled with clothing and with delicacies in the way of food and drink. ”

“ While I think it was right to take a share in the erection of this convalescent home, which indeed could not have been obtained as a military hospital, it immediately raised in mind the consideration of the propriety of the Red Cross conducting hospitals in any circumstances. It is of course the English practice, and the special circumstances of Great Britain may make it necessary to erect Red Cross hospitals. The Commonwealth of Australia has never prevented the establishment of as many hospitals as may be considered necessary in the field. ”

“ Thomas' Hospitals, now in process of construction at the Surrey Side of the Thames, in Lambeth, opposite the Houses of Parliament, will combine a number of hospitals for Special Diseases, and will accommodate about 2,000 patients, with as many beds, and will have an income of £50,000 a year, or more.
It is impossible to think of any disease, complaint, deformity, or injury to any member or organ of the body, which has not its special hospital or institution for relief or cure, in the English metropolis. ”

“ In these books he chiefly adapted the work of his predecessors, but in some cases he gives detailed accounts of contemporary events. His name frequently appears in the records of St Bartholomew’s and Christ’s hospitals, and in 1553 he was treasurer-general of the hospitals of King Edward’s foundation. ”

“ Why, even the children's wards of the London Hospital are not that, for, as you look down the rows of beds, you see surprise and happiness on the poor little pinched faces—surprise that everything is clean and white, and that they are lying between proper sheets; happiness that they are treated kindly, and that there are no harsh words. As for a military hospital, while war lays waste the world, there is no place where there is more peace and contentment. ”

“ Anne’s Military Hospital. The structure was in an unfinished state, and the walls were not plastered. But it was thoroughly ventilated and free from dampness, and that meant much in a building designed for the care of the sick.
The house contained altogether about three hundred patients. Each ward held from twelve to fourteen men, and the rooms opened into one another. It was noon when the Sisters arrived, and they were shocked to find that many of the wounded men had not yet broken their fast. The first care of the newcomers was to relieve the hunger of the patients. ”

“ It is a curious reflection that whilst in the present war the base hospital has been given, if anything, an undue importance, in the other war it has been practically neglected. Our great hospitals are almost entirely field hospitals, planted right in the middle of the battle, and there we keep our patients till such time as they are to all intents and purposes cured. A very few convalescent homes will admit cases which still require treatment, but only a very few. ”

“ It is just these badly defined functions in a base hospital which a chaplain can discharge so well.
We think also that women might be used in base hospitals as stenographers, ward maids, telephone operators, and the like. Base hospitals in the future are not likely to be housed in tents, and under rough conditions. At present, trained nurses are sent to the Stationary Hospitals. It seems a pity to waste fine young men, who could be combatants, as orderlies in a base hospital. ”

“ Pending such a discovery the experience of the cancer department connected with the Middlesex Hospital in London proves to demonstration that the provision of adequate and special accommodation for the exclusive treatment of cases of cancer is not only desirable but necessary on humanitarian grounds alone. ”