Infirmaries are liable to a variety of petty abuses, which have a tendency to accumulate in their amount, and thus generate much evil. One of these is the practice of nurses taking money from the patients. This is not always easily prevented, as the latter feel a debt of personal gra titude ; and it might appear hard to deprive them of the liberty of showing it, and the nurse of the opportunity of receiving a slender reward for superior attention. But it is necessary to suppress such a practice, otherwise it in fallibly leads to a system of exaction which amounts to a robbery of the poor. The only way in which such prac tices could be at all tolerated, would be by prohibiting them while the patients are in the house, and conniving at expressions of their gratitude, which are made after the lapse of some days or weeks. Even this would not be safe, nor probably any thing short of a positive suppression of such perquisites, especially when we consider that the same patients may be liable to return.
A system of inspection and explanation does not merely secure the conducting of the charities on correct princi ples, but produces a most beneficial effect, by satisfying the minds of all concerned. Hence each patient is required to read an enumeration of the advantages of attendance which he may expect, and a statement of the behaviour required of him. A table of his diet is also shewn to him. This is a subject on which abuses might creep in. It is also one, on which hurtful mistakes, and unjust complaints, are lia ble to occur. Persons from a distant place, differing in its customs from that in which they are admitted into an in firmary, are sometimes apt to find fault with the provisions, and their complaints will always be more or less soothed, when they are informed of the usages of the country. Poor persons from the south of England find fault with the colour of their bread in the northern hospitals, though fully as wholesome as their own. When the reason or the dif ference is pointed out, they may despise the customs of the place, but they cease to harbour the idea that they arc defrauded of a right. In all public matters, systematic ex planations compose the public mind, and produce a charm ing alteration on the moral aspect of society. It is better j to cure jealousy by intelligence, than to suppress it by in culcating hlind confidence.
Public charities are in some particulars apt to operate unfavourably on the moral feelings of those who are re lieved. W e have already stated the encouragement of in dolence as one of these, but one from which infirmaries are exempt. Another is a tendency to generate a depres
sing sense of dependence. Some attempt to remove this; by teaching the patients to look on such relief as a right ra ther than a favour,—a notion, which is considered as keeping erect the dignity of an independent mind. Some delicate distinctions, however, are here requisite for moral prac tice. Such relief must not be considered as a right of the •ame indefeasible kind as those advantages that are ob tained by a man at his own expence. The duties of cha :ity arc of such a nature, that their limits and appropriate .iccasions do not admit of being easily defined. They re 4uire much reflection and care in the performance, and the ieglect of them is more excusable than an act of common .njustice. This ought never to be forgotten, otherwise the her=on receives charity cherishes unreasonable ex pcctations. While the poor man applies for the relief pro vided by public institutions with a mind sensible of his claims, he must be taught to recognize the spirit of active benevolence in others, without which his wants could not be supplied. If he does not, his independence degene rates into pertness, ingratitude, and clamour. When mat ters are thus cautiously and modestly conducted, the moral feelings both of rich and poor are improved. The rich find that they are relieving persons in whose situation they may afterwards, by the reverses of human affairs, be placed; thus their deeds of charity remind them of the lot of mor tality. Humbling instances of such reverses frequently fall under the observation of those who visit infirmaries. They are also made to reflect, that no man is absolutely in dependent. The rich depend on the poor as well as the poor on the rich, and they feel that their deeds of charity arc only acts of justice, though they derive in the eyes of others a merit from being voluntarily and cheerfully per formed.
For the sake of preventing any unnecessary mortifica tion that might occur, as well as dispensing bounty in a *more equitable manner, some descriptions of patients are required to make a payment in the name of board. In some cases of this kind, a difference has been made in the diet. This is perhaps injudicious. The diet of all ought to be wholesome, and the only differences allowed should be those that arc rendered proper by the state of the complaint. Any other distinction has a tendency to mor tify the more helpless of the patients, unless they are com pletely separated.