Infirmary

“ Having fulfilled my promise of contribution to the Infirmary of two years’ gratuitous services and having put everything in order and divided the duties which I had been discharging, I left the Infirmary on June 1, 1859, taking a short vacation in New York but arriving in Boston on the sixth, as I found to my great disappointment that no short vacation would bring back the strength which I had wasted in my zeal to advance “the Cause” more rapidly than the law of evolution permits. ”

“ What an Augean stable for a weak woman to cleanse! Then again nothing annoys the public more than to open the doors of its whited sepulchres. Of course, it was no use to condemn the present system without putting something better in its place. The workhouse infirmary was far better in one sense; there, the object was to help the patient to get well as speedily as possible, and take himself off the books; but there attaches a stigma to the infirmary from which the hospital is free, yet the hospital must be reformed on the model, in some respects, of the infirmaries. ”

“ Of all the charitable institutions which do honour to the benevolence of the city, the Infirmary ranks the first in beneficial and important operations, and eminently deserves the sympathy and support of the public. ”

“ In Lobeid, the contrary is observed, for the invalided men are obliged to be dragged to the infirmary by force, because they stand in so much awe of this terrible place, that every disease increases as soon as they know that they [214] are to enter the establishment; and thus the greater number keep their sufferings secret as long as they possibly can. The apothecary who performed the duty of the medical man in the infirmary paid his visit once daily, and, on his arrival there, it depended, properly speaking, on the nurses what medicines the patients should take. ”

“ Mercury' of October 12, 1838, we find an advertisement of half a column, by a Dr. T. Stillman, setting forth the merits of another 'Medical Infirmary,' under his own special supervision, at No. 110 Church street, Charleston. The doctor, after inveighing loudly against 'men totally ignorant of medical science,' who flood the country with quack nostrums backed up by 'fabricated proofs of miraculous cures,' proceeds to enumerate the diseases to which his 'Infirmary' is open, and to which his practice will be mainly confined. ”

“ In April 1876 he removed to Manchester, and in August was appointed pathologist to the infirmary. Though late in beginning the practical work of pathology, he laboured in the post-mortem room with all the enthusiasm of youth, and in October 1878 was elected assistant physician to the infirmary. In 1881 he published ‘A Treatise on the Diseases of the Nervous System,’ in two large volumes, of which a second edition appeared in 1883. ”

“ This spirit, then poured into the world, flowed down through the ages, promoting self-sacrifice for the sick and wretched. Through all those succeeding centuries, even through the rudest, hospitals and infirmaries sprang up along this blessed stream. Of these were the Eastern establishments for the cure of the sick at the earliest Christian periods, the Infirmary of Monte Cassino and the Hotel-Dieu at Lyons in the sixth century, the Hotel-Dieu at Paris in the seventh, and the myriad refuges for the sick and suffering which sprang up in every part of Europe during the following centuries. ”

“ The Lords Select Committee reported that:—
“The evidence on the whole appears to indicate a general recognition of the high standard of efficiency attained by the best of the new infirmaries.
“The poor do not generally regard the infirmary as they do the workhouse; they look upon it rather as a State-supported hospital; they come to the infirmary, are cared for, cured, and go out again without feeling that they are tainted with pauperism.” ”

“ He was seen to be growing weaker, being without strength and without health, and when he was taken to the infirmary the physicians corroborated what all knew with regard to the danger in which he was; but they were never able to find out the cause, since it was beyond the limits of their science. ”

“ No truly, I am young, healthful, and strong; the blood flows freely in my veins; my limbs obey my will; I am robust in mind and body, constituted for a long life. Yes, all this is true; and yet, nevertheless, I have an illness, a fatal illness,—an illness given by the hand of man!{254}
Since I came out of the Infirmary a vivid idea has occupied me,—a thought which affects me to madness; ”

“ The sick were cared for with the most tender solicitude, six brothers were deputed to the service of the infirmary, and the best ass in the stables was set apart to haul wood for the fire. The infirmarian was always provided with spices and wholesome herbs to make the food of the sick more appetizing and wholesome. ”

“ The case of the prisoner who becomes [178] insane is no less harrowing. She is kept in the infirmary with the other patients for three months. If she does not recover her reason within that period, she is certified by three doctors as insane and then removed to the criminal lunatic asylum. In the mean time the peace and rest of the other sick persons in the infirmary are disturbed by her ravings, and their feelings wrought upon by the daily sight of a demented fellow creature. ”

“ His association with the active staff of the infirmary lasted until October 1905, when, on reaching the age limit, he became an honorary consulting physician. Even then he was granted the unique privilege of having a few beds in the infirmary allotted to him and was asked to continue his clinical teaching there. ”

“ Stonehouse, he writes:—
“Weston-Favel, November 22, 1746.
“Dear Sir,—I heartily applaud the zeal you show for the spiritual welfare of the patients. The infirmary would be an inestimable blessing, if it might be productive of a reformation in the persons whom it admits and discharges. As distressed objects will, in all probability, resort to it from all parts of the county, a change wrought in their hearts, and a renewal begun in their lives, might be a happy means of diffusing religion far and near. ”

“ Very shortly after his arrival I was called to the cell of the medium,
F——. He suffered, by his own statement, from severe pains in the head.
I found the man to be nervous, anemic; his manner characterized by a sort of hysterical effrontery.
"Send me to the infirmary", he begged. "This isn't punishment, but torture."
"What are your symptoms?"
"I see things; my case has no comparison with others. To a man of my super-sensitiveness close confinement is mere cruelty." ”

“ They are very much disappointed by the country condition attached to the hospital; but were I settled in England and working there, it would not discourage them. But all our friends seem to think that as the New York Infirmary is the best argument that can be used for English work, its downfall would be an irreparable misfortune, and they are willing, under the circumstances, to let me go. ”

“ The poor-law infirmary, too, properly organised under doctors and nurses and visited by ladies, might be the school of purity and the home of discipline in which the fallen might be helped to find strength. ”

“ The law of silence, for instance, was hardly relaxed at all in the infirmary; the sick man could indeed talk about himself and his ailments and necessities to the infirmarian at any time, and the latter could give him every consolation and advice; but there was apparently no permission for general conversation, even among the sick, except at the regular times for recreation; even at meal times the infirm ate in silence and followed, as far as might be, the law of the convent refectory. ”

“ Wards are placed on each end of the infirmary buildings for idiots, epileptics, and lunatics, in which cells are provided for those for whom occasional restraint is unavoidable, or whose habits render distinct accommodation necessary. ”

“ The poor-law infirmary in large cities, so far as the buildings and equipment are concerned, very often leaves little to desire. Poor-law infirmaries lack, however, the stimulus and the checks and advantages which impartial criticism continuously applied brings to a great voluntary hospital. ”

“ He was soon appointed pathologist to the Royal Infirmary, and immediately entered upon a career of great scientific energy, not only throwing himself into the teaching of his subject to large classes of undergraduates, but making numerous original observations. ”

“ Nor does the cause of our want of success appear at all obscure. We believe that in practice the cases of urgent compression dependent on depressed bone alone are very few indeed; we are well aware that many such are on record, we do not presume to impugn their accuracy, we merely affirm that the records of the Glasgow Infirmary do not add to the number. ”

“ Most of the good London hospitals, however, are so besieged with would-be probationers that we often think a girl is wise who enters a first-rate infirmary by preference. The Birmingham Infirmary and the Brownlow Hill Infirmary, Liverpool, are both most excellent, and several London Infirmaries, notably those in Chelsea and St. ”

“ When we see the flagrant violations of nature’s law of breath we cannot help wondering at the long suffering endurance of the defrauded body and the marvelous compensation nature laboriously makes.
We do not sin away our day of grace all at once. Disease of body, mind and soul is not a thing of a moment’s birth, but is the inevitable reaction of a long violation of the natural adjustments of true being. ”

“ It appeared as if the muscular waste was not eliminated from the blood as before castration, but remained in my system as a poison, rendering me dazed, taking the edge off my intellect, and enervating my body. I could spare my mental faculties for use in my profession only by leading a very quiet life, slow and limited in physical movement. ”

“ The medium through which all action is transferred from mind to flesh is the blood current; the life of the body is the blood. The blood carries thought-force as waves of vibration and these waves of vibration establish action and reaction in the tissues.
We say without a chance for contradiction, that all disease of the flesh is the result of disordered states of mind; that back of all disease is the long, discordant line of thinking which it and that as the disease of the in mind, it is to the mind we must has produced flesh begins look for its cure. ”

“ What do the people know of the kidneys, lungs, liver, as conditions of their physical life? But every one feels the stitch in the lungs, or a pain in the kidneys or liver, and understands the warning which it conveys to him. Physical pain is the signal of a disturbance in the organism, of the presence of an influence inimical to it. It opens our eyes to an impending danger, and compels us, by the pain which it causes, to oppose it in time. The very same is true of the moral pain caused us by intentional injustice, by arbitrariness. ”

“ From ill-filled lungs, which signify ill-repaired blood, arise year by year an amount not merely of disease, but of folly, temper, laziness, intemperance, madness, and, let me tell you fairly, crime—the sum of which will never be known till that great day when men shall be called to account for all deeds done in the body, whether they be good or evil. ”

“ One may neglect his own health or injure it by indiscretion in the use of food and drink, thus bringing on diseases by which many a life is shortened. A superior or an infirmarian may neglect the proper care of sick or delicate persons, a pastor or teacher that of school children, etc. ”

“ Blood is made from food; but it may be lost by careless hemorrhage, or poisoned by deficient elimination. When frequently and largely lost or poisoned, as I have too frequent occasion to know it often is, it becomes impoverished,—anemic. Then the brain suffers, and mental power is lost. The steps are few and direct, from frequent loss of blood, impoverished blood, and abnormal brain and nerve metamorphosis, to loss of mental force and nerve disease. Ignorance or carelessness leads to anemic blood, and that to an anemic mind. As the blood, so the brain; as the brain, so the mind. ”

“ If you have sound and capacious lungs, and want them to remain, always have ready the mental protest against the opposite belief of weak lungs, tubercles, or hereditary consumption getting hold of you from any circumstance, and you will find that mind, self-conscious and self-assured of its power, governs the body as directly to results in health as it forbids the muscles to move the hands to steal. Through fear, the body becomes instantly weak or abnormally strong, showing it is mortal mind that produces strength or weakness. ”

“ Some infirmaries were for the insane, who were generally thought to be possessed by the devil or demons. Their treatment was usually by scourging the demons out of their body by flogging. If this didn't work, torture could be used to drive the demons from the body. ”

“ If, therefore, she that had an issue of blood might commendably touch the garment of our Lord, why may not she, who has her courses, lawfully enter into the church of God? But you may say, Her infirmity compelled her, whereas these we speak of are bound by custom. Consider, then, most dear brother, that all we suffer in this mortal flesh, through the infirmity of our nature, is ordained by the just judgement of God after the fall; for to hunger, to thirst, to be hot, to be cold, to be weary, is from the [pg 058] infirmity of our nature ”

“ If the case to be treated is a consumption, begin your argument by taking up the leading points that this disease includes, according to belief, showing it is not inherited, that inflammation, tubercles, hemorrhage, and decomposition are but thoughts, beliefs, mental images before mortal minds, not the immortal Mind; hence they are not the Truth of man, and should be treated as error, put out of mind, and then they will disappear from the body. ”

“ Where a fulsome if not a false adulation praises your slender grace, I shall not hesitate to tell you that I see neither slenderness nor grace, but ribs crushed in, a diaphragm flattened down, liver and stomach and spleen and pancreas jammed out of place, out of shape, out of use; and that, if you were born so, humanity would dictate that you should pad liberally, to save beholders from suffering ”