116 A DISTRICT HOSPITAL I ITS CONSTRUCTION AND COST. 



within will greatly depend on the taste displayed in colouring the 

 walls. Sheet iron of the requisite guage for the ceilings cannot be 

 got free from buckling, and cannot be made therefore to lie 

 perfectly smooth or to make sufficiently neat joints. For this 

 and for other reasons I think lath and plaster had better be 

 substituted in future for the sheet iron ceilings used at Kiama. 

 This modification also allows the ventilating openings to be some- 

 what reduced in size. Foundations should be of brick or stone ;. 

 and a good damp-course should be built in above the ground-level 

 and below the flooring joists. 



The General Plan. — I have observed that the traditional front 

 door in the middle of the principal elevation constitutes in such 

 small hospitals as these a stumbling block ; leading to waste of 

 space, and the introduction of rooms for which uses have to be 

 found. You will perceive that I have got rid of it. The entrance 

 is at one end of the administrative block (Fig. 2), and gives, without 

 intervening hall, upon a fairly large room which is destined to 

 serve several purposes. It is intended to be the operating room ; 

 and therefore it has a good top light. But instead of a sky-light 

 the windows may be made to run up to within six inches of the 

 wall-plate ; and this plan will doubtless be sometimes preferred. 

 Then it is intended to serve as the dispensary ; and a suitable 

 press for this purpose should be regarded as apart of the building 

 and provided for in the contract. Here also may be placed the 

 hospital library, and the books of the institution ; here, too the 

 Board of Management may meet. And at this point I feel 

 it necessary to break off for a moment, in order to point out 

 that, if these arrangements do not seem all that can be desired, 

 they are yet practically sufficient, and practically unobjectionable. 

 A hospital of 21 beds is, after all, a very small place; and while 

 the arrangements which, in larger institutions would be necessaries 

 are here merely conveniences, the restriction of narrow means. 

 must not be lost sight of. When I come to speak of lavatories, 

 much more forcible criticism of a similar kind may be offered. 

 But again I should reply that the arrangement shown is not 

 unhealthy, practically is sufficient for its purpose, and is as 

 convenient as the money at command can provide. It would be 

 very easy to furnish the two customary pavilions attached to each 

 ward — the one for closets, the other for the lavatory, if money 

 were no object. This entrance, then, gives on a large room intended 

 for general business purposes. By it all patients enter ; and as. 

 they must sometimes be carried, it is important that no steps 

 should be necessary to reach it. For a similar reason the doorway 

 should be four feet wide ; and it may now be observed that all 

 doors from, and including the entrance to the two wards on each 

 side of the hall are of this width, while the passages measure six 



