On each side the gateway are the houses
of the resident medical officer and of the matron. Passing down the
centre, which is lofty and covered in with glass, we arrive at
two sidewings running right and left from the centre, and forming
cross-corridors. These are the wards: twelve on one hand for male,
twelve on the other for female patients. The cross-corridors are
twelve feet wide and twenty feet high, and are roofed with glass; The
corridor on each side is a framework of walls of glazed brick,
arched over head, and divided into six segments. In each segment is
a separate, light, elegant removable ward, constructed of glass and
iron, twelve feet high, fourteen feet long, and ten feet wide. The
cubic capacity of each ward is 1,680 feet. Every patient who is ill
enough to require constant attendance has one of these wards entirely
to himself, so that the injurious influences on the sick, which are
created by mixing up, in one large room, the living and the dying;
those who could sleep, were they at rest, with those who cannot
sleep, because they are racked with pain; those who are too nervous
or sensitive to move, or cough, or speak, lest they should disturb
others; and those who do whatever pleases them:--these bad influences
are absent.
The wards are fitted up neatly and elegantly.
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