QUEENSLAND 
PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. 
(From the Queensland Guardian , July 2, 1866.) 
THE CONSTRUCTION AND ARRANGE- 
MENT OF HOSPITALS : 
A Paper read at a Meeting of the Philosophical 
Society, June 25, by R. G-eorg-e Sitter, 
M.A., Architect. 
The sanitary treatment of that portion of a 
community which from circumstances is un- 
able to secure other than gratuitous advice may 
be generally classed under two heads, Con- 
struction or Arrangement, and Management or 
Administration. The latter is purely the medi- 
cal portion of the subject, and can be 
adequately treated by the profession alone. The 
former is the province of the architect, acting 
by and with the advice of the medical staff, 
and bringing to bear on the subject the united 
force of common sense, professional skill, and 
the results of experience. It is the privilege of 
a new colony to reap at once the benefit of 
those lessons, political or social, which the 
mother and other countries have learnt 
only after long and, perhaps, painful ex- 
perience, and in proportion as these results are 
appropriated or neglected, the greater will be 
the advantages enjoyed or the blame incurred. 
Amongst the demands upon the better feelings 
of our nature, whether individual or national, 
the care and restoration of the sick and infirm 
may be reckoned the earliest, and if in answer- 
ing it judicious counsels prevail, and advantage 
is taken. of those arrangements and appliances 
which modern thought and skill have intro- 
duced, the end aimed at will be more speedly 
attained, with greater economy as well of 
money as of human life. Steps have already 
been taken in this colony towards the establish- 
ment of good hospitals, and Brisbane will 
shortly count amongst its social institutions a 
building which will form no mean addition to 
the city improvements. On this ground, 
perhaps, something of an apology is due for 
troubling you with this subject to-night, inas- 
much as it may be said that, the initiative 
having already been taken, any further dis- 
cussion is uncalled for. Having, however, been 
called upon by the Parliamentary Committee 
to give evidence on the subject, it occurred to 
me that the few notes I have been able to 
collect at home and in the colony might not 
be wholly unworthy of your attention, or at all 
events might be productive of good by calling 
out the ideas of those who have given the 
subject their attention, and who from 
their position aud interest are qualified 
to express an intelligent opinion. Since the 
close of the Crimean war the subject of Hospitals 
has received so much attention that the quali- 
ties good and bad which they possess are now 
fully known, and to erect a new building on an 
old and exploded plan, and without the advan- 
tage of modem improvements, would be 
an anachronism little short of criminal. The 
object, therefore, of this paper will primarily 
be to ascertain how far these modern notions 
can be brought to bear in this country on our 
hospitals and infirmaries, and to what extent 
the new arrangements now in force at home can 
be acclimatised and made to satisfy the de- 
mands of a different and warmer country. In 
doing this, I must very briefly ask you to assist 
me in building an hospital on modern principles, 
incorporating the arrangements and appliances 
which are now considered necessary, and 
adapting them, as far as practicable, to our 
different climate. Once for all, I must pre- 
mise that I wish to avoid every appearance of 
dogmatic assertion where there is the least 
room for difference of opinion — rather my aim 
will be to lay before you certain propositions 
which may lead to the exchange of ideas and 
