On this page
-
Text (1)
-
260 HOSPITAL OP THE MATER MISERICORDIJE.
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Ladies, P Douj3t:Less Many Of Your Reade...
outline of the wall on that side . Over the mantelpiece at either end of each ward hangs a large engraving of some Scriptural or
devotional subject . _Thecorridors are matted in the centre , so that _footstejDS [ fall noiselessly ; ' the range of windows are fitted [ with low
deep seats and look , in the distance , over the open country , but more immediately into what will eventually be the _j > leasure ground of the
enclosed quadrangle . I saw some of the patients thus seated gazing , with eyes that sickness had made wistful of such a visionupon the
sky above and the green beneath . One poor man was on , Ms knees , as if in the very act of thanksgiving .
At the present moment about seventy beds are occupied in the wards , and some few pension patients are in the private rooms .
Any one _ecpjAying sub the _disjsensary gets medical relief , and such as require hospital treatment are drafted in according as vacancies
occur . All this , however , is but a small beginning as it were . In fact , only one side of the quadrangle is completed , and this not what
xaay be called the hospital proper , but the portion of the building _whicli will eventually be set apart for lecture halls , waiting" rooms ,
officers' apartments , operation wards , museum , convalescent and children ' s wards . Along the upper stairs of both wings will run the
great wards for each sex , extending 380 feet in straight line , separated at intervals by glass doors enclosing a private " apartment
for the sisters charged with the immediate surveillance , who thus at all times can command tlie whole extent of the ward . The corridor
already described will be carried round the whole building and terminate in the chapelwhichwith the sisters' quartersand some
twenty-eight rooms for , pension , patients , will form the rear , portion of the buildingcorresponding with the street front . When
com-, pleted there will be accommodation for 500 , or in time of pressure for 700 beds . One of the wings is sufficiently above ground at present
to give an idea of the plan , but the works are suspended for want of funds . This " accident" occurred more than , once while the
portion of the building now standing was in course of construction , and is inevitable from the way in which the money is supplied . Private
charity does it all . A great many pay a moderate annual subscription j the different trades of the city—cork-cutterscoach-makersand
, , so on—collect among themselves ; and a very considerable amount comes in as the penny of the poor . "When the times are bad , and
trade fluctuates , the great masses of hewn limestone lie in heaps , and the fair granite mouldingscut and carvedare left idly on the
ground . And then again , when , affairs take a , lucky turn , it all goes on as in the middle ageswhen each and all brought on such
occasions their offering of skilled , labor or builder ' s stores . There are other hospitals in Dublin which are managed in the
same admirable way , but none will rival in extent and completeness this truly noble one of tlie Mater Misericordise .
I remain , Ladies , yours sincerely ,
Dublin , 1861 . An Inhabitant of Dublin .
260 Hospital Op The Mater Misericordije.
260 HOSPITAL OP THE MATER MISERICORDIJE .
-
-
Citation
-
English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Dec. 1, 1861, page 260, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01121861/page/44/
-