Hand-Book for Hospitals

New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1883. Hardcover. Fair. Second edition, revised and enlarged, 1883. Original brown cloth with gilt lettering on spine, front and rear covers stamped in black. Covers show severe damp staining. Some spots of soiling on a few pages, else interior is generally clean and also largely free of the moisture damage seen on the covers (dampstains appear in top margin of last couple chapters). One pages has a chipped corner. Book placed in archival mylar. pp. 263. Scarce. A detailed look at hospital management, sanitation protocols, and the roles of nurses and management as practiced in the later nineteenth century. The materials in this handbook were prepared in 1877, and revised/expanded in 1883, for the use of members of the State Charities Aid Association whose duty it was to visit public hospitals in New York County (i.e. Manhattan) and other counties in the state of New York. The contents address many different aspects of hospital management, design, and organization, including institutional and patient hygiene and other aspects regarding the care of the sick and insane. The State Charities Aid Association was co-founded in 1872 by Louisa Lee Schuyler, a welfare worker and influential reformer, who was particularly devoted to New York City's Bellevue Hospital. The organization was intended to serve as an umbrella organization for local groups of volunteer visitors interested in the inspection and improvement of prisons, poorhouses, workhouses, public hospitals, and schools. Contents: I. General Suggestions. II. The Hospital Building. III. Air-Supply and Heating. IV. Drainage and Water-Supply. V. Some Interior Details. VI. The Hospital Laundry. VII. Hospital House-Keeping. VIII. The Nursing Service. IX. Care of the Insane. X. Maternity Wards. XI. Village Hospitals. XII. Hospital Disinfection. XIII. Conclusion. XIV. Appendix [including materials pertaining to Isolating Cottages; an inventory for a ward of twenty beds; how to wash woollens; how to make soft and hard soaps; store-room and pantry regulations; general rules for hospital attendants (head nurses, assistant nurses); rules for patients; lunacy laws (certificates of insanity, commitment of the insane, discharge of the insane); the National Board of Health's 1879 instructions for disinfection; and two-pages providing book references.]