AUSTRALIA. L27 



THE MELBOURNE EOSPITAL. 



The Melbourne Hospital is the principal general hos- 

 pital of the state. It is centrally located. It is a two- 

 story sandstone building with a wide front and several 

 pavilions, enclosing a square in the rear of the main 

 building. Viewed from without it presents a somewhat 

 stern, antique and very massive appearance. One of 

 these pavilions is devoted to diphtheria cases and stands 

 isolated from the remaining buildings. The hospital 

 can accommodate 300 patients. It is in this hospital 

 that the medical students of the University of Mel- 

 bourne receive their clinical instruction. It has no gyne- 

 cologic staff, all gvnecolo^ic cases being referred to the 

 attending surgeons. The more legitimate specialties are 

 well represented. The medical and surgical cases are 

 under the care of four physicians and an equal number 

 of surgeons, whose services are continuous throughout 

 the year. The resident staff consists of a medical super- 

 intendent and eight internes. The latter are selected 

 from the graduates of the university who have the high- 

 est standing : they remain for one year and serve in the 

 different departments by being transferred every three 

 months. The nursing is in charge of several sisters 

 and 92 pupil nurses. The operating amphitheater is 

 small but well lighted and on elevated seats guarded by 

 iron bars provides standing room for the medical stu- 

 dents and visitors ; it contains all the essential equip- 

 ments for surgical asepsis and necessary instrument-. 

 I visited the hospital under the guidance of Mr. Fred 

 D. Bird, one of the attending surgeons and professor 

 of surgery in the university. He showed me many 

 cases of great surgical interest, among them several 

 cases of intestinal and gastric surgery and the usual 

 number of appendix operations. I was shown a case 

 in which Mr. Bird had excised a perforated gastric 

 ulcer of the small curvature of the stomach, four years 

 ago, near the pylorus, in a young woman. The patient 



