HOSPITAL CONSTRUCTION. 625 



boards may have to be rejected before securino; a first-class floor. 

 But when a good jarrah floor is obtained but little is left to be 

 desired. The proper treatment for such a floor after being cleaned 

 up and papered is a thorough saturation with raw linseed oil, then 

 varnish, and finally hot beeswax and turpentine, rubbed vip to a 

 a smooth shining surface. After jarrah our choice of available 

 timber is limited to pitch pine or New Zealand kauri ; either gives 

 a splendid floor, but care must be exercised with each. The 

 former should be high colored and have two or three years' season- 

 ing ; the latter should be light colored in contradistinction to red, 

 and used bone dry, care being taken to exclude all damp air from 

 underside for a season. Both floors should be waxed. 



A room iCOft. long x 26ft. Avide and 18ft. high, giving nearlj'' 

 1,800 cub. ft. of air each to twenty-six beds, is an economic ward. 

 The corners should be rounded to do away with internal angles, and 

 so prevent dead air. As little woodwork as possible should be used, 

 a coarse Keene's cement for architraves, window linina", and skirting 

 being preferable to wood, and as little moulding as possible. 

 When ready tlie walls should have five coats of paint and two coats 

 of the very best elastic varnish. The ceiling can be of plaster, 

 wood, or 28-gauge small-fluted corrugated galvanized iron. The 

 latter makes a splendid ceiling, and leaves little to be desired, and 

 is considered an improvement on lath and plaster, not being subject 

 to crack or fall down. In any case, whether plaster, wood, or 

 iron be used, the ceiling must be painted and varnished, and in the 

 case of a two-storied building sound deadening must be filled in 

 above ceiling and under the floor of the ward above. A central 

 fireplace is considered an improvement on the old system of fire- 

 places in the walls, and the main shaft can be used for decorative 

 purposes to brighten the ward. 



In Australia natural ventilation has, I believe, been found to 

 answer all purposes in hospital construction when judiciously 

 applied. Fresh air should be introduced thi-ough the external 

 walls, delivering under each bed, and again at, say, 7ft. 6in. or 8ft. 

 above floor level, with a special terminal to prevent the cold air 

 falling directly on the patient below ; while by a system of 

 extracting pipes from ceiling and pipes carried up in centre of 

 chimney shafts, aided by the fires in winter and the difference of 

 temperature between internal and external atmosphere in summer, 

 helped again by the wind acting on the specially-constructed ter- 

 minal cowls on roof, the experience of several years has proved 

 that hospital smells can be conquered, more especially if the 

 attendants will judiciously use the fanlights placed over each 

 window as an additional aid at night and the windows themselves 

 in the day time. Free cm-rents of air shovild also pass from end 

 to end of the whole block, and from side to side. Wards should 

 have large arched openings with screens within, uncovered, thus 

 allowing free passage of air without direct draught ; each large 

 ward shou^ld be provided with a dirty linen shoot delivering from 

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