The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-01-22 00:00:00

REPORT

From the return carefully prepared by the house-surgeon, it
appears that during the past year there have been 3,748 appli_
cations for medical and surgical relief. Of these, from the
severe nature of the cases, 1,276 were such as to require
admission into the hospital, while the remaining 2,472 were
treated as out-patients. These numbers exhibit a slight
decrease as compared with the preceding year.
Of the above cases no less than 2,816 were accidents, expe-
rience thus continuing to prove conclusively the necessity of a
hospital in this locality, by the indispensable aid afforded to
those urgent cases in which distance, and consequent delay,
would prolong the agony of the sufferer, and increase the dan-
ger of death. Of the 23 submersion cases, all recovered,
proving the value of the internal arrangements of the institu-
tion, by which a hot bath is always instantly available for the

reception of such cases.
The class of in-patients has included no less than 99 cases
of wounds of the bead and face ; a larger number than in any
previous year. These are cases which, in most hospitals, are
dreaded, from their extreme liability to erysipelas. In the few
cases in which this has occurred recovery has invariably taken
place. Two instances of erysipelas in the arm have, however,
proved fatal ; but these were in very old men, with btoken-
down constitutions, whose cases were hopeless when admitted.
The proportion of deaths is greater by about one-seventh
than in the preceding year, hut the number of hopeless cases
has also been greater, thus virtually reducing it to almost the
same rate.

From the continued prevalence of high prices and other
unavoidable causes, the expenses of the hospital have again
been heavy, and the committee continue to be painfully im-
pressed by the great disproportion between the expenditure and
the regular income. For the present, indeed, the hospital is
relieved from the burden of debt which had accumulated, and
the committee think it only due to two of their members,
Mr. Farnworth and Mr. Aikin, to record here their grateful
sense of the obligation to them which the hospital is
under, for their most generous and successful exertions,
and also to the donors by whom those exertions have
been so liberally met. But the result of such exertions is
mainly to release the hospital from temporary difficulty and
pressure. The chronic disproportion between the income and the
expenditure, must again encumber the institution with a grow-
ing weight of debt, for the removal of which it would not be
prudent or reasonable to rely upon a renewal, from time to time,
of such extraordinary efforts as have just been gratefully
referred to; and it will become necessary, either to procure, by
a widely extended subscription-list, or other means, an increase
of not less than £BOO per annum in the regular and certain
income, to maintain the institution in its present state of
efficiency, or else to curtail most seriously the beneficial
operation of the hospital, which is already restricted, for the
most part, to those urgent and acute cases, which it would be
almost impossible to turn away from the doors. So far are
the committee from being willing to acquiesce in this latter
alternative, that they would greatly desire, did their financial
position permit, to increase the number of beds to one
hundred, so as to raise the hospital to the rank of a chartered
institution, with the privilege of taking pupils, from whom
fees would be receivable, and recognition as a medical and
surgical school. Could this extension be prudently effected, a
greater amount of good could be done with a less proportionate
expense, as the requisite accommodation already exists, and
the present staff of officials would scarcely require to be
increased. Such an elevation of the character of the institu-
tion would be attended with the important advantage, that the
pupils would relieve the house-surgeons of the most irksome
and laborious of their duties, and thus lessen the difficulty of
finding eligible candidates for the office, which, owing to the
demand created by the war, and the competition of more
lucrative and important situations, the committee have latterly
found to be exceedingly great ; and the higher terms which it
has, consequently, become necessary to offer, constitute one
unavoidable source of increased annual expense.
The committee have to lament the recent removal by death
of one of the oldest and firmest friends of the hospital, their
much esteemed vice-president, the late Joseph Brooks Yates,
Esq„ who was greatly instrumental to the original establish-
ment of the institution, indefatigable in promoting its interests
as president during the first eight years of its existence, and
continued to the last to devote to it much generous, personal,
and pecuniary aid. It was his often and earnestly expressed
wish, that the hospital should assume the elevated rank, and
attain ',to the more extended usefulness, above suggested as
desirable, and it would be a source of great satisfaction to the
committee, if the finances of the hospital could be placed in
so healthy and satisfactory a state as to make it feasible to
accomplish his wish, thus paying the most appropriate tribute
to the memory of its principal founder and friend.
Mr. Halhead moved that the report and statement of
accounts be adopted, printed, and circulated among the
subscribers. In doing so, he said that it would be well
that it should go before the public, that though there
was a present balance of £532 in favour of the institu-
tion on the face of the accounts, still the greater portion
of that sum was already owing. He agreed with the
report, that it would be unwise to look for continued
donations every two or three years, and he therefore
hoped that the friends of the institution would exert
themselves to raise the annual subscriptions, which
constituted the permanent income of the Hospital.
Thanks were unanimously voted to the President,
Vice-Presidents, Secretary, Treasurer and Auditors, the
Chaplain, Rev. T. D. Barry and his curates, the Donors
to the Institution, the Honorary Medical-officers, and
the other officers of the Institution

Mr. C. Martin and Mr. C. C. Challinor, in moving
and seconding the last resolution, spoke in the most
eulogistic terms of the services of the Matron, and their
observations were a armly endorsed by the other gentle-
men present.

On the motion of the Rev. Mr. Robberds, seconded
by Mr. C. E. Rawlins, Mr. James Ingram was unani-
mously elected President for the ensuing year.
The Vice-Presidents and Committee were then ap-
pointed, after which the meeting separated.