THE BUILDING OF HOSPITALS 89 



taincd forty tallies for male strangers and twelve for widcnvs, 

 the inference being that of these wayfarers there were the sick 

 and ailing to be cared for. The history of the hospital dates 

 back 300 years before Christ even in Europe, while in the four- 

 teenth century there were 19,000 such places in that continent. 

 Many of these institutions were of Roman Catholic origin, and 

 to-day all over the world these hospitals under the care of the 

 church are legion and wielding a tremendous influence upon the 

 ills of both the flesh and the spirit. 



Burdett quotes figures from 2,000 hospitals in the British 

 islands having an income of $36,500,000 ' In the United States 

 are nearly twice as many institutions in that category, with an 

 income in proportion, save as the small hospital in the small 

 town is increasing, and thus lowering the aggregate. As an in- 

 dex of the British interest in the hospital funds of the islands, 

 the queen's jubilee year in 1897 brought $4,700,000 to the 

 hospitals of the kingdom, w^hile the ordinary hospital Saturday 

 and Sunday in Liverpool may net $115 to the 1,000 of popu- 

 lation. As an index of the interest in the United States may 

 be taken the tens of thousands of dollars donated every year by 

 private individuals to the establishment of these institutions, 

 and the hundreds of thousands that are voted by state legisla- 

 tures for the establishment of new hospitals for specific dis- 

 eases — especially for tuberculosis. 



The number of hospitals in New York and in Chicago in 

 proportion to the death rate of these cities is significant of the 

 hospital's importance in the metropolitan city. New York 

 with 140 hospitals in 1904 had 96,000 deaths inside the 

 Greater New York boundaries, w^hile Chicago, w^ith 62 hos- 

 itals, had 26,311 deaths. Naturally the hospital figures much 

 more largely in the cure of diseases than in the easement of the 

 dying; if death be expected, the home may be the ideal place 

 for dissolution; but if sanitary treatment for a curable iU is 

 desired, the hospital is ideal. To the extent that the death 

 rate may suggest the totals of the sick and maimed m those 

 cities these figures are enlightening. Yet it is in these large 

 centers of population in all the United States that the greatest 

 hospital movement is felt. 



Tuberculosis is the agent of the movement. The dis- 



