The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-12-12


 In old French, where the bracketins
 of two substantives did duty for tht
 genitive, THotel Dieu Agste Vitu tell'
 us, signitied the hostel of God, that i'
 to say, the house of hospitality, where ont is received in the name and under tht
 auspices of God. This "Maison du bor
 Dieu" was founded about A. D. 660 by
 St. Landry, the twenty eighth Bishop
 of Paris, in the time of Clovis IT., sor of Dagobert. He there received, at his own expense, not only sick folk, but also beggare and poor pilgrims. 'Medi- GUS ct Hospes," such was the motto of the good Bishop. As centuries rolled by Kings continued and increased the work of St. Landry. In those far-off times when the most elementary hygiene wac a dead letter to our ancestors, the Hotel Dieu received a prodigious number of patients, 300 in the time of St. Louis and as many as 1900 under Louis XIV Those numbers were often surpassed, and rose in 1709, we are told, to 5000 when several patients were placed in | the same bed with the risk of terrible contagion and of a frightful mortality
 The Hotel Dieu at that time did not stand exactly where it does now, but rather in front of the new buildings that we admire now, and which were con- structed from 1868 tp 1878 on an area of 2,220 square metres bounded on the north by the Quai aux Fleurs and the south by the Place du Parvis. I will not now attempt to describe stone by stone these new buildings, which merit a visit, for which permission may easily be obtained through the courtesy of the Director de Assistance Publique. I will only say, to the credit of the archi- tects, that having been able to avail themselves of all the desired space, they have secured for the patients the best possible conditions of health, of ventilation and of comfort. As an adult absorbe about six cubic metres of air per hour the number of beds had in consequence to be diminished. They are reckoned at 514 of which S29 are clinic al cases, 169 for surgical and 16 for children, who enjoy an equal wealth of pure air and light, on whom are layished the care of the first practitioners in the world, such as Professor Dieulafaloy and Surgeon Duplay. The kitchens, where excellent culinary products are cooked and prepared; the bath and douche rooms, with their perfected ap- paratus, all justify the fifty million francs the building has cost.
 The Hotel Dieu covers an immense area. Besides the hospital proper, so to speak, there Is an outpatients block which is free to the whole city and a portion, ampitheatres for prac- tical teaching, pharmaceutical and chemical laboratories. etc, which form of Medicine in Paris.
 The hospitals were, unfortunately, laicsed some years ago at the instance of group of sectarian politicians by no means representing the true feeling of the vast majority of French people. The time is not, perhaps, far distant when the "Bonnes Soeurs" may be able once | more to undertake their service at the l bedside of the sick and the dying, to whom they were ministering angels. | The lay nurses, male and female, who | have taken their place can never offer | the same advantages or the same guar ] antee to the families of the poor suffer- | CTS, and one often hears of fatal acci- dents resulting from the want of care or the inattention of sometimes even the brutaliyt of their mercenary guard ans.
 Nevertheless, at the Hotel Dieu some religeuses are still to be met with; it Is there that since the laicising of the Hospital Ia Charlie and of the Hospital | le la Pitie they have been allowed to establish supplementary dormitories in he roof where they have taken refuge. From time immemorial the Augustin- an Sisters have had no other dwelling ind no other mother house than the hospital One of the obligations of their 'ule was-when the Hotel Dieu consist Id of two large buildings on either side he Seine--to be responsible for wash ng 500 sheets in the little arm of the 'iver one day each month, no matter what the temperature was. The mothers as well as the novices were ,qually obliged to take their part. Tn he Bibliotheque Rationale an old en- ,raving is still preserved faithfully re- presenting "The Washing of the 500 Sheets"
 It will be a happy day for France which will see the re-establishment of ne SlsJeIS III tHe HoSpltalS or llle SlS- CTS whose rule says, They shall only ave for convents the sick-room; for ell rented room; for cloister, the treets of the town and the wards of he hospital; for enclosure but obedi- nce for veil, but modesty." Such is he definition of the Sisters of Charity iven bv St. Vincent de Paul, quoted nd admired by Victor Hugo and which to be found in an article full of in-