4 
hours ; 16 men in a room would therefore ex- 
hale in 8 hours 16 pints of water and 123 cubic 
feet of carbonic acid into the atmosphere of the 
room. With the watery vapour there is also 
exhaled a large quantity of organic matter 
ready to enter into the putrefactive condition. 
This is specially the case during the hours of 
sleep, and as it is a vital law that all excretions 
are injurious to health if re-introduced into the 
system, it is easy to understand how the breath- 
ing of damp foul air of this kind, and the re- 
introduction of excrementitious matter into the 
blood through the function of respiration, will 
tend to produce disease.” If this be correct 
for those in health how much more will it be 
so for the sick, the exhalations from 
whom are so much the more dangerous, 
as thev form one of nature’s methods of throw- 
ing off noxious matter from the body ? To 
obtain the amount, therefore, which is neces- 
sary, experiments have proved that a ward 
should not be less than 15 feet in height, thus 
giving to each bed in a ward of 20 beds 
80 feet long, and 25 feet wide, a cubical 
space of 1,500 feet. But this is not all. We 
require also a certain amount of superficial 
area, for the loss of which cubical space will 
not compensate. The usual hospital bed is 
generally 6 feet or 6 feet 3 inches by 3 feet or 
3 feet 6 inches, and allowing the bed to stand 
a little distance from the wall these figures 
will give an area of 2 L or 24£ square feet for 
the bed itself. Besides this we want space for 
the unimpeded movement of 2 or 3 round the 
bed, for a night chair, and perhaps bath, with- 
out incommoding the adjoiuing patient. 
Between the feet of the beds on the opposite 
sides there should be room for a moveable 
dresser or table and a form, leaving also a clear 
gangway. Taking alt this into consideration, a 
superficial area ot 100 feet for each bed is not 
too much. The following table gives the cubic 
and superficial allowance to each bed in several 
modern hospitals : — 
V2 • 
-4-* 
o 
r£-a 
tc ’I 
o 
rS -a" 
T3 -a 
o 
£ 'S 
4J 
4h 
O • 
03 
£ 
&T3 "Z 
O' 0 ^ 
•2 u <u 
H 
o3 g 
c £ 
4) ^ 
i -t 
> £ 
p- 
4) ^ 
K 
o 
& 
CC 
.Q 4) S^. 
3 Pi 3 
O m 
a > rQ 
o3 
Feet. 
Feet. 
Feet, 
Leeds 
..110 
26 
18 
32 
1 
1732*5 96*25 
Bombay 
. 65 
25 
18 
16 
1828.12 101-5 
Bristol 
— 
— 
— 
1090 
— 
Preston (Lancashire) 
— 
— 
— 
1900 
— 
Liverpool (Fever) .. 
. — 
— 
— 
— 
1500 
— 
New St. Thomas’ 
(London) 
,120 
28 
15 
28 
1800 
120 
Terbert ( W oolwich).. 
.115 
28 
15 
32 
1500 
100 
The diagram is mpant to represent a ward 
rected on these principles, being a slight mo- 
ification of that adopted in the new hospital 
Leeds. In the original the number of beds 
32, but to suit our climate 1 have reduced 
at to 28, and have not included in the dimen- 
ons the angular piece at the end of the room, 
■ that the actual figures of allowance of space 
each bed would bo something in excess of 
those given, and I do not think 2,000 cubic 
feet per bed will generally be considered ex- 
cessive. These are, as will be seen on the 
plan: — Length of ward, 110 feet; width, 23 
feet ; height, 18 feet ; No. of beds, 28 ; cubic 
feet per bed, 1,980 ; superficial area, 110 
square feet. The figures on diagram E 
give a section of the pavilion at Leeds, with an 
external elevation of the windows, and one 
of the latter to a larger scale showing the 
method of ventilation. Our ward, therefore, 
having this capacity, how is it to be filled, 
emptied, and refilled in continuous succession ? 
The answer is, as we have said before, by 
natural ventilation only. All artificial sys ems 
have more or less proved failures, and nothing 
short of open doors ami windows, 
or similar ape tures will avail. In the 
diagram before you there is a window 
between every two beds which is 
in height 13 feet, and 4 feet 9 inches in width ; 
or 61 feet 9 inches clear space for air. There 
is also a window at the end. Generally, those 
windows are made as sashes to slide up and 
down, by winch I am inclined to think a greater 
command is obtained over the quantity of air 
admitted, and over the height of its admi-sio i. 
At Leeds, an elab irate and rather expensive 
system of double glass louvres has been adopted. 
The windows are brought to within 2 feet 6 
inches of the floor, enabling the patients to 
look out from their beds. Advantage is tiken 
of the me lieeval character of the building and 
of the windows to obtain additional openings 
for air above the lights communicating by air 
trunks, formed in the thickness of the flior, with 
openings in the floors and ceilings. Tue wards 
are warmed by op n fireplaces in the centre ot 
the room, with descending fiue j , the heat of 
which is employed to draw in the external air. 
Before going furihe?, I wish to draw your 
attention to the diagram F, which gives a plan 
of the European general hospital at, Bombay. 
I am sorry that I have no better specimen of a 
hospital in a warm climate to put before you ; 
but in truth they are not numerous, and all the 
instances adduced in the home Government 
minute are samples of things to be avoided. 
The general particulars are figured on the 
drawing, and the building is three stories in 
height — the two upper being used^as the 
hospital, the lower for staff residences, casual 
and accident wards. Tue dimensions of the 
building are as under Length ot ward, 65 
feet; wi 1th, 25 feet; heigit, 18 fe< t ; nuin er 
of beds, 16; cubic feet per bed, 1828T25. The 
plan, as will be seen, is on the. paulio i princi- 
ple, and the hospital is plac -d facing the west, 
from which quarter a pleasant sea breeze is 
blowing throughout the year. I speeitlly 
bring this before you, because the mode of 
ventilation as described might, with some modi- 
fication, be adopted liere. “The ventilation 
of the wards,” it. is said, “ is canie 1 on by the 
windows, which are very lofty and placed 
