The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-01-28
Why Not the Water Street Site for
 Hospital

! 1O EullOI OL lIlG OOui tloi eiAN A@SAAASA'
 Is an isolation hospital needed?
 New Haven needs an isolation hospi
 tai. There is no place in the city
 where a person stricken with diphthe' ria, scarlet fever or measles can be
 taken. The general hospitals are not permitted to receive such cases. The amount of unnecessary suffering from contagious diseases calls for immediate action. Must the city be shocked by such experiences as those which Bos- ton and Providence are now fighting, before it sees fit to protect itself?
 What contagious diseases will be cared for?
 Principally the so-called children's diseases, viz, diphtheria, scarlet fever and measles. The petition expressly states that the proposed hospital is not for smallpox.
 Who needs an isolation hospital the most?
 Persons who cannot be isolated in their own homes, especially those who live in boarding houses and in crowded tenement houses, The hospital must be as attractive as possible and up to date in every way, so that all classes of people will use it,
 Is an isolation hospital menace to health!
 ! The medical superintendent of the Alexandria hospital for contagious dis eases in Montreal writes T may say that no one acquainted with the histo- l ry of hospital of this kind, within the immediate neighborhood of dwelling 1 houses, would consider 1t a source of | danger; for standardization of this fact I would refer you especially to the re- gently published Q906) History of the South Department, Boston City Hospi- tai. The superintendent of health In Providence writes: We have a conta- glous ward in Providence situated one hundred and fifty feet from a row of we'll populated houses. It has been there ten years, and at present we have thirtyflve patients there; 1t is usually full during the winter season. There has never been any spread of disease from the hospital to the dwell ings, the hospital has never been the cause of any complaint, and 1t has not affected the values of property"
 Does an isolated hospital depreciate the value of property?
 It has not in the experience of other cities, judged from large number of letters. For example, the health off, cer 1f Rochester, N J., writes:I think I can say that property has increased in valuation in the neighborhood, if anything. I have myself recently bought some property within one-third of a mile of this place" The superin- tendent of the Isolation hospital in Worcester, Mass, writes: We have some houses near. Property on our left was this year cut up into house lots and sold immediately. Property has certainly not depreciated in this vicinity"
 Why not build it in connection with one of the existing hospitals? Neither of the existing hospitals has the funds to build or maintain an isolation hospi tai. The city cannot appropriate mon ey for a hospital on private grounds, and surrender all control of 1t. The officers of the General Hospital society have gone into the matter in consider able detail and have decided in view of the space needed for the future normal development of the New Haven hospi- tal that the erection of an isolation hospital upon their property Is not feasible. Why not the hospital at Springside farm?
 Because it would be inaccessible
 Montreal has just abandoned it's is- lolation hospital on the outskirts of the city and built two new ones, both In the heart of the city, and one in the center of a large manufacturing dis trict It was found dangerous to transport little child with @ high fever in a stove-heated ambulance three or four miles" If an isolation hospital is not a source of danger why erect it at Springside? why should New Haven make its hospital inaeces- slble when other cities, like Montreal, build theirs in the center of the city?
 Should the Water street site be re- JtCttu DGCduS6 Ol ullo llCloV Ol lt1SLb- ries?
 It is difficult to secure quiet place in the center of a city, The isolation hospital in Montreal is located in al- most exactly the same kind of a place as the Water street site, on the water front, with factories all about 1t, and with the Grand Trunk railway car shops, in which two thousand men are employed, within two or three hum dred feet of it. The superintendent writes: "I would say that the noise of the Grand Trunk railway does not in the least affect our patients, and that I do not see why the noise of the city would be a greater objection in the case of a contagious hospital than in that of any other"
 WATER STREET ADVOCATE.