any communicable disease. To one hospital four medical officers are
appointed, each of whom, therefore, has six resident patients under
his care. The officers are called simply medical officers, the
distinction, now altogether obsolete, between physicians and surgeons
being discarded.

The hospital is brought, by an electrical wire, into communication
with all the fire-stations, factories, mills, theatres, and other
important public places. It has an ambulance always ready to be sent
out to bring any injured persons to the institution. The ambulance
drives straight into the hospital, where a bed of the same height on
silent wheels, so that it can be moved without vibration into a ward,
receives the patient.

The kitchens, laundries, and laboratories are in a separate block at
the back of the institution, but are connected with it by the central
corridor. The kitchen and laundries are at the top of this building,
the laboratories below. The disinfecting-room is close to the
engine-room, and superheated steam, which the engine supplies, is used
for disinfection.

The out-patient department, which is apart from the body of the
hospital, resembles that of the Queen's Hospital, Birmingham,--the
first out-patient department, as far as I am aware, that ever deserved
to be seen by a generous public. The patients waiting for advice
are seated in a large hall, warmed at all seasons to a proper heat,
lighted from the top through a glass roof, and perfectly ventilated.
The infectious cases are separated carefully from the rest. The
consulting rooms of the medical staff are comfortably fitted, the
dispensary is thoroughly officered, and the order that prevails is so