In 1796, the House of Recovery of Manchester was on these principles first established, at a time when fevers were extremely prevalent, and the numbers of febrile pa tients, attended by the physicians of the infirmary, were on the increase. Ina lew weeks, these began to be di minished, and the average number of fevers in that town has continued ever since to be much smaller than former ly. In the first year, they were reduced to 57, having been 226 in the year preceding ; and. of these 57. several were brought from the suburbs, the fevers of which, in the preceding year, were not included in the 226.
One advantage of this institution was, that a spirit of co operation on the part of the owners of cotton manufacto ries was excited, and the health of their work people be came much more than formerly the subject of study.
It was also found that, of those who were seized with fever, a larger proportion now recovered, the medical prac tice being materially aided by the attendance and the com forts which this institution provided. " A clean bed, a quiet ward, an attentive nurse, end the frequent visits of the physician, were," as Dr Ferriar observes, " so many medicines to a poor creature, who otherwise had been lan guishing in a damp cellar, or in a garret, exposed to the injuries of the weather, amidst the neglect and confusion of a wretched family, clamorous from hunger, or brutal from debauchery." Some time intervened, after the first establishment of this institution, before it was placed on a scale sufficiently ample to comprehend all the cases that occurred in Man chester and its environs. But, after this was accomplish ed, the result was, according to Ferriar, that the medical faculty of the infirmary felt themselves complete masters of the disease. " Epidemic typhus," says this author, in the third volume of his Illedical Histories and Reflections, published in ISIO, " is now unknown to us, while it has been raging in some of the neighbouring towns." Institutions of the same kind have been form ied n Lon don, Dublin, Liverpool, and several other populous towns.
The principles on which these are founded are the same which have been enumerated, and the effects which have been produced by them correspond to those of the parent institution in Manchester.
In houses of recovery, one part is appropriated exclu sively to scarlatina. In Manchester there is a ward for this purpose, under the same roof with those for typhus, but entering by a separate outer door, that the contagion of this disease, which is peculiarly difficult to be decom posed or dissipated, may be prevented from attacking the other patients or their attendants.
In London, a small-pox hospital has been long establish ed, by which similar attention is given to patients under that disease, and the contagion is prevented from spread ing, as it might otherwise do. The important object of inoculation has been comprehended by the same institu tion, first the variolous, and latterly the vaccine. See OCIJLATION.
Among infirmaries limited to particular diseases may be mentioned, with applause, lunatic hospitals, (sec INSA lying-in hospitals, hospitals for syphilis, as the Lock hospital in London ; the hospital for diseases of the eye ; and the cancer ward of the Middlesex hospital. The laws of these institutions are founded on the same principles as those of other infirmaries, with such varia tions in their application as are adapted to the nature of the particular objects to which they are directed. Bang's Selecta Diarii Nosocomii Hafniensis (Preface.) Iberti, Ob servations generates sur Ics Hopitaux. Highmore's Pietas Londinensis. Blizard's Suggestions for the Improvement of Hospitals. Cross's Sketches of the Medical Schools of Paris. Roux's Narrative of a Journey to London. Fel. riar's Medical Histories and Reflections. Haygarth on the Prevention of Infectious Fevers. Clark's Collection of Pa pers on Fever Wards. Proceedings of the Manchester Board of Health. (II. D.)