184:
His Excellency Lord Sandhurst, who was received with cheers, said :—Mr.
AunaJi, Mr. Wandeker, Ladies and Gentlemen,—This is the last time that 1 shall
have a chance of coming to the Mahratha Plague Hospital, a group of buildings that
I have known ever since its commencement, when it did not cover so much space
as it does at present, and when its henefits were not so clearly known as they are
to-day. I have been able owing to the munificence of other people to open the new
wards which are a fitting addition to the hospital buildings, as they were before
these additional buildings were erected. We cannot be too grateful to the generous
donors -who have placed their means at the disposal of the Committee, and it is in-
deed a great instance of public spirit which has prevailed ever since the plague began,
and we see our rich merchants coming forward to assist everywhere those who are
unable to help themselves. I know very well how much the community and how
much the sick poor owe to the indefatigable efforts, as they have been well described
in the address, of Sirdar Mir Abdulali. I very much question whether without hi&
indefatigable energy and his habits of persuasion it would have been possible to get
together all these mass of buildings so fully equipped as they are, and so useful from
every point of view. Supposing there had been no Sirdar we might have been able
to get together these plague buildings, which were so acceptable to all those for
whom they are intended, but at any rate we cannot be too thankful that we have
a Sirdar among us who was willing to put his shoulders to the wheel and through
whose instrumentality we have such good results achieved. There are two or three
interesting features about this hospital. One was that it was not merely a plague
hospital, but which has side by side accommodation for those whose friends were
sick within the hospital. It is in fact a large and novel kind of organisation—on
organization on the best possible system—supervised by thcsa who -were best able
to judge of the proper requirements. I trust it will be long after the plague shall
disappear—and disappear it will in time—I trust it will be long before these build-
ings which are so well adapted for the purpose of an infectious hospital, will be
demolished. You have been lucky in getting a site of such a wide area as you
require. This is not, as you will know one building, just one infectious hospital,
"but it is as I have described it as a group of buildings admirably adapted and well
ventilated. I very much doubt that you will find other rccms or wards with better
accommodation and ventilation than the new wards which I have just opened. 1 will
now say a word or two in regard to the allusion made in the address of the service
of the body of nurses who have come out to assist us in our work. Before I came
out to this country, i had a great deal to do with the nurses in-the various hospitals,
and I am perfectly certain of this, and I question whether anybody will assert io
the contrary, that no hospital is complete without its proper complement of nurses.
I do not for a moment draw any distinction or any comparison between the duties
of doctors and of nurses, but I know I am almost certain that every doctor will tell
you that his establishment is absolutely incomplete without nurses, properly and
thoroughly trained, and who had in fact ample opportunity and testimony to prove
that in innumerable cases the nurses who have come out and have placed their
experience and talents at our disposal have ample experience of the way in which
they have rightly got into a line and working order hospitals which were not in
such a happy position and have given a finishing touch to such an organization.
Isow, ladies and gentlemen, I regret extremely that this is my last visit that 1 shall
pay to the Mahratha Hospital. I shall take away with me the recollections of the
institution which will endure with me, I can assure you, for many long years.
Memories are short and 1 daresay may have forgotten the great state of anxiety and
fear bordering at one time on panic which prevailed in Bombay some three years ago,
That panic now has ceased to exist. We have ourselves learned a great deal. I
Ixere again bring another instance pf the usefulness and sympathy of our friend
Sirdar. It is not easy, ladies and gentlemen, I can assure you, to get money for an
institution, however praiseworthy its object may Ve. I have lad myself to beg for