The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1882-10-11

|
PRESIDENTS REPORT.
The president of the corporation, DR.. Johr
t. Gilman, reported for the directors a,
follows:
To the Corporators of the Maine General
Hospital.
Gentlemen,-It is cause for congratulatior
and gratitude that we enter with such favora-
BILE conditions upon the duties Of another year
The hospital is free from debt, and has {
credit balance in its treasury of nine hundred
| and thirty five dollars and five cents.
| Our medical and surgical stats are now full
DIR. Charles A. Ring having been elected to
| the medical staff to supply the vacany &C.
casioned by the transfer Of DR.. Lewis
w. Pendleton to the surgical staff The gem
tlemen who compose the two departments act
together in entire harmony, and with the
single purpose of doing every thing which
science and skill can accomplish for the bene-
hit Of the patients committed to their care.
Their services are now, as they have always
been, wholly gratuitous.
AT the last monthly meeting of the board
of directors, Mr.. Franklin X. Barrett was
elected to and has very kindly accepted the
Office of treasurer, made vacant by the death
of Mr.. McCobb
Three hundred and ffty-four patients have
been under treatment during the year-an in :
crease of ffty-six compared with the preced-
ing year-of which number one hundred and
fifty-two were admitted, either wholly or in
part, on the free list
The demand for free beds at this time is
very large, much larger than the .hospital in
its present financial condition can supply.
May we not cherish the hope that the I'M
portance of Hospital Sunday contributions,
upon which we mainly rely for their support,
will henceforward be more fully and practical
ly recognized throughout the State
The large number of tive hundred and
sixty three operations, covering almost the
entire domain of surgery, have been per-
formed during the year,-a list Of which with
the results actually Obtained will be appended
to our printed reports.
We are reluctantly compelled to say that no
progress has yet been made towards the erec-
ton of an amphitheatre.
Its Importance to the hospital for surgical
purposes and clinical instruction, to which we
adverted at length in our last report, increases
with each succeeding year. Indeed the high
est interests of the institution, as well as of
the profession in our State imperatively calls
for it, in order to place the standard of medi-
cal education in Maine on the high level
already occupied by some of her sister States
in the union. But we cannot afford to appro-
pirate dollar from our treasury in aid of its
construction.
1t is surely matter in which the public
interest is largely concerned, and it is to a
generous public we must appeal to furnish
the necessary means.
We sincerely trust that before the close of
the present hospital year, some suitable and
practicable measures will be set in motion to
secure the attainment of this much desired
object
In the month of July all our private wards
were occupied, and several wealthy persons
who came here at that time with the expecta-
ton of being admitted to the hospital for
treatment, were compelled to their great in
convenience and disappointment to seek
apartments elsewhere to avail themselves of
the experience and skill of our surgical de-
partments.
By the generosity of few friends the de-
ficiency is now partially supplied. Three of
your directors, Messrs. Spring Clapp and
Jose finished and furnished, each at his own
expense. three rooms in the central building
which were not in proper state for occu-
pancy, and the fourth, the only remaining one,
was put in admirable condition by the gener-
osity of Mrs. Manasseh III. Smith of this city.
The apartments are provided with every APP
pliance essential to the well being and COM
fort of patients. They are capacious and airy,
and present to the eye from almost every
window a landscape of wide extent and rare
beauty.
1t is proper to say in this connection, that a
small accession to our present number of in
mates. would fill every unoccupied bed in the
general wards, and every private room in the
hospital, and thus render the erection of the
south western pavilion as designed by our
architect, and which is so essential to its
architectural completion and beauty, a necessity
for the accommodation of patients.
We are greatly indebted to twelve or thir-
teen young Misses of this city, their ages
ranging from six to twelve years, who con-
ceived the idea of establishing "childrens
ward" AN organization was perfected year
or more ago, and they soon put into operation
their peculiar methods for raising money, and
allowed no obstacle to divert them from their
purpose.
The room is now completed. 1t is situated
in the fourth story of the main building, is
abundantly supplied with sunlight and pure
air, and has commanding view of the city
and hsrbor. 1t contains six beds, and the
bedsteads are made with especial regard to
comfort and safety The ceiling and walls are
beautifully painted and frescoed, and the en-
tire room il finished in every way which
taste could suggest and art accomplish to
arrest the attention of the little patients who
may occupy it, and to beguile the weary hours
of sickness and eonvaescence.
With the expression Of our warmest thanks
to the young Misses, we feel it is due to them
to officially recognize the successful accom-
plishments of their srduous but truly noble
undertaking.
The following congregations and churches
have kindly responded to our annual call for
hospital Sunday contributions for the support
of free beds, viz: