Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 8.djvu/266

254 ENGLAND [HOSPITALS. How terrible were the ravages made by some of these diseases, such as leprosy, is shown by the fact that there were counted in France, in the year 1225, upwards of 2000 hospitals, going by the distinctive name of " leprosoria." England must have suffered, as well as France, from the influx of the infectious maladies from the same source, although the English crusaders were much less numerous, and many of them belonged to a better class. Neither in France nor in England any trace is left of the "leprosoria" of the 13th century, all the existing hospitals being of more modern foundation. T] ie The most ancient in the list of English hospitals is that oldest of St Bartholomew, London, which had its origin in a English priory of the same name, founded by Rahere, a minstrel l of King Henry II., about the year 1100. A quarter of a century later, Rahere obtained from the king the grant of a piece of waste ground, adjoining the monastery, where he built and endowed a hospital "for a master, brethren, and sisters, and for the entertainment of poor, diseased people till they get well." At the dissolution of the monasteries, in the reign of Henry VIII., St Bartholomew contained 100 beds, with one physician and three surgeons. The hospital was refounded, on a new basis, in 1544, and incorporated by charter in 1516. St Bartholomew, on account of its age no less than of the excellency of its medical staff, con tinues to stand in the foremost rank of English hospitals, as of the endowed charities of the country in general Its average annual income, in recent years, amounted to about 40,000, derived mainly from rents and funded property. In 1876 St Bartholomew s Hospital had 5672 in-patients and 19,576 out-patients, together with 153,905 other patients attending for temporary medical and surgical atten dance, thus affording relief to 179,153 persons in the course of the year. The five The management of the oldest of English hospitals was royalhos- united, in 1782, with that of four other charitable institu- pitals. tions of the same kind in London, namely, Bethlehem, St Thomas s, Christ s Hospital, and Bridewell. The union was effected under the Act 22 George III. c. 77, and from it the joined institutions were called " the five royal hospitals," their superintendence being placed under " the pious care of the lord mayor of London." Only three out of the " five royal hospitals," St Bartholomew, Bethlehem, and St Thomas, now remain institutions in the same sense, the other two, Christ s Hospital and Bridewell, having been diverted entirely from their orgiual design. Bethlehem Hospital, like St Bartholomew s originally a priory, founded in 1247, under the name of St Mary of Bethlehem, by Simon Fitz Mary, sheriff of London, was given, with all its revenues, by Henry VIII. in 1547, to the city of London, as a hospital for lunatics. With the exception of an institution of the kind previously founded in Granada, Spain, it was the first lunatic hospital in Europe, and as such acquired large fame, though for a long time not well deserved, the unhappy inmates being treated more like caged animals than human sufferers. Bethlehem Hospital had its first site in Bishopsgate Street, from which it was transferred to Moorfields, in the city of London, in 1675, and finally to its present place, St George s Fields, Lambeth, in 1814. The income of Bethlehem Hospital in the year 1876 amounted to 25,184. More wealthy than Bethlehem, and with revenues equal to those of St Bartholomew, is the third of the "royal hospitals," St Thomas, likewise originally a priory, and converted into a hospital in 1553. The old building, in Southwark, near London Bridge, was levelled to the ground in 1862, to make room for the South-Eastern Railway, when a new and larger edifice was erected in Stangate, Lambeth, facing the Houses of Parliament, and opened in 1871. Of the two converted "royal hospitals," the first, Christ s Hospital, Newgate Street, London, founded in 1553, is solely devoted to the education of upwards of a thousand boys, out of revenues of about 58,000 per annum ; while the second, Bridewell Hospital, has become an industrial school, its annual income of nearly 15,000 being employed in the training of 150 boys and as many girls, under a scheme settled in 1860 by the "Charity Commissioners of England and Wales." There are no official statistics regarding either the total Jieve- number of hospitals in England, or their revenues, the great " ues majority of these institutions being maintained by volun- {^ l " tary contributions, and therefore, as previously mentioned, by law exempt from the supervision of the Chanty Com missioners. In a few provincial towns, such as Salisbury, Cambridge, Bristol, Winchester, and York, there are hospitals dating back to the first part of the 18th century, and with more or less considerable revenues; but otherwise the metropolis is the chief home of all these charitable in stitutions, both on account of its wealth, and in connexion with the study of medicine necessarily demanding central ization. Besides the " royal hospitals " there are others, endowed and unendowed, possessed of large revenues. Foremost among them stand Guy s Hospital, Southwark, founded in 1721, which has an annual income from invest ments of over 40,000, and relieves 5000 in-patients and 85,000 out-patients in the course of the year ; and the London Hospital, established in 1740, and supported mainly by voluntary contributions, which maintains 6300 in- patients and 46,000 out-patients, at a cost of 44,700 per annum. Among the other principal metropolitan hospitals are that of Westminster, founded in 1719, with an annual income of 13,000 per annum, relieving 2000 in-patients and 20,000 out-patients ; St George s, at Hyde Park Corner, opened 1733, disbursing 28,000 a year for 4000 in- patients and 17,000 out-patients; and the Royal Free Hospital, Gray s Inn Road, which spends 22,000 in relieving annually 2000 in-patients and 26,000 out-patients. There were altogether 115 hospitals in the metropolis at the end of 1877, of which number 16 ranked as " general " hospitals, for the treatment of all diseases, while the rest were devoted to special maladies or infirmities. To aid in the maintenance of all these institutions, involving an aggregate expenditure of over a million sterling per annum, there has been made, since 1873, in the middle of June an annual collection in most of the churches and chapels of London, known as that of the " hospital Sunday." The collection produced over 25,000 in June 1877, and not much less in the preceding years. The receipts of 1877 were distributed among seventy-six general and special hospitals, including four medical institutions and forty- three dispensaries, the former receiving 22,747, and the latter 2223. In addition to the "hospital Sunday" there was started in the metropolis, in 1875, a "hospital Saturday" collection, made later in the year, the object being to let the so-called working classes contribute to institutions maintained almost exclusively for their own benefit; but the receipts in 1876 and 1877 were compara tively small, with large expenses of collection. Endowed Charities. While no authentic information Endow* exists regarding the number and income of the charitable charitie institutions maintained by voluntary contributions, the f , Charity Commissioners for England and Wales have issued from time to time, in their reports to parliament, accounts of the financial state of the endowed charities placed under their control. Appended to one of these reports, issued in June 1877, was a series of tabular summaries, giving an account of the income, both from landed property and invested funds, of all the endowed charities under the super intendence of the commissioners in England and Wales.

Of these the following is an abstract :